According to the aid organization SOS Méditerranée, the rescue ship “Ocean Viking” rescued more than 600 people from distress off Lampedusa – more than ever before. The “Humanity 1” also saved more than 100 people.
The rescue ship “Ocean Viking” of the aid organization SOS Méditerranée has according to its own information rescued 623 people in distress in 15 rescue operations in the last 36 hours off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Among the rescued were 146 unaccompanied minors, said the non-governmental organization on the short message service X, which was previously called Twitter. There, SOS Méditerranée described the rescue operation of the “Ocean Viking” as the largest so far.
Only a part of the people can go ashore
The “Ocean Viking” responded to a call from the Italian rescue center on Thursday “to help in sea emergencies southwest of Lampedusa,” SOS Méditerranée said. Some of the migrants should therefore go ashore in Lampedusa in the evening – others will remain on board until August 14 or 15, when the rescue ship reaches the assigned port of Cittàvecchia northwest of Rome.
Many of the survivors come from Sudan, which has been shaken by heavy fighting for months – but also from Guinea, Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire), Burkina Faso, Benin and Bangladesh.
“Humanity 1” saves more than 100 people
Meanwhile, the ship “Humanity 1” of the civil rescue organization SOS Humanity saved a total of 106 people in distress in the central Mediterranean in two other rescue operations. SOS Humanity also published a statement on Platform X.
The organization also announced that water had already entered the rubber dinghy, in which 86 people were sitting, when the rescue ship reached it off the Libyan coast. “No one on board was wearing a life jacket and the fuel had run out,” it said.
According to the NGO, “Humanity 1” then took on 20 other people in distress off the Libyan coast, with a total of around 30 minors and some babies among those rescued. The emergencies were reported by the civil reconnaissance aircraft “Seabird” and the Frontex surveillance aircraft “Osprey 3”. Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
most dangerous migration route of the world
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world. According to the IOM, at least 1,848 people died trying to reach Europe by ship this year alone.