September 20 () –
The ‘Geo Barents’, the rescue ship of the NGO Doctors Without Borders, already has more than 200 migrants and rescued people on board, after carrying out a second operation late on Thursday to assist 109 people who were trying to reach the coasts of southern Europe in a precarious flagged boat, and is already sailing towards the port of Genoa.
“They were fleeing Libya,” the NGO explained, accusing the Libyan Coast Guard of carrying out “dangerous manoeuvres” during the rescue operation. So far this year alone, the coast guard has intercepted and returned more than 16,200 migrants to the North African country, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The same agency, part of the United Nations, estimates that more than 1,100 migrants and refugees have died in the central Mediterranean in 2024, with almost 23,900 victims recorded since 2014.
Italian authorities have tightened controls on NGO rescue ships, accusing them of promoting human trafficking in the Mediterranean. Usually, disembarking migrants involves a temporary administrative block for the ship transporting them, as happened to the ‘Geo Barents’ before its current deployment.
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