They were in distress aboard a wooden boat off the Libyan coast. The Ocean Viking ambulance ship, chartered by SOS Méditerranée, rescued 101 migrants including 29 women and 7 children this Friday, January 10. The Marseille-based NGO announced that this is its first rescue of the year. In a press release, she said: “The boat in distress was spotted with binoculars, in the international waters of the Libyan search and rescue region”.
The survivors, mainly from Somalia, Syria, Eritrea and Egypt, were then taken care of by teams from SOS Méditerranée and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Ocean Viking is now heading towards Ravenna, the disembarkation port assigned to it by the Italian authorities. “It was Ravenna, four days’ sail away, which was designated as the port of disembarkation, even though the weather was bad and the sea was rough. We therefore ask the Italian authorities to designate a closer port.castigated the NGO.
“The remote ports policy puts people at risk”
“We recall that according to international maritime law, rescued people must be disembarked “within a reasonable time”. Yet for more than two years, the remote ports policy has deliberately delayed rescues and put people in danger. These cynical decisions cost lives»she also accused.
According to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 31 people trying to reach Europe have already disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the year. In 2024, there would be 2,301 of them, the vast majority of them in the central Mediterranean, which remains one of the deadliest migratory routes in the world.
Source: www.liberation.fr
