NGOs rescue the occupants of several small boats in the central Mediterranean area

Aug. 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Rescue boats operated by the NGOs Médecins Sans Frontières and SOS Mediterranée have helped the occupants of several small boats in the central Mediterranean area in recent hours, a key route for migration to Europe from North Africa.

The ‘Ocean Viking’, owned by SOS Mediterranée, already has 355 people on board, after carrying out six rescue operations in just 36 hours. The latest one has resulted in the rescue of 87 women, men and children in a crowded wooden boat in the Maltese Search and Rescue area.

In the previous rescue, the NGO ship rescued 56 migrants and refugees, including pregnant women and babies. The youngest is three weeks old.

“Many have high levels of exhaustion and dehydration after three days at sea in extreme heat and insufficient amounts of water and food,” the NGO explained on its social networks.

For its part, MSF has reported this Saturday morning the rescue of eleven people who were traveling aboard a boat in trouble. According to the NGO, these migrants, all of them men, “fled their native countries and the inhumane conditions in Libya,” the departure point for most of the boats.

The MSF ship, the ‘Geo Barents’, had already disembarked this week in Italy another 106 migrants and refugees previously rescued in the Mediterranean.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 1,100 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean, with at least 918 victims in its central part.