Forty-seven migrants adrift in the Mediterranean were rescued on Tuesday south of the Italian island of Lampedusa by the Ocean Viking , found on board a journalist from AFP, bringing to more than 160 the number of people gathered by the humanitarian ship in five days.
Posted on 30 June 2020 at 15 h 07
France Media Agency
As during the two operations carried out by the SOS Mediterranean ambulance boat last Thursday, these 47 people were crammed into a wooden craft-crafted boat of an engine.
They were rescued at “30 nautical miles (approximately 55 kilometers) south of Lampedusa in international waters under Maltese responsibility, ”stressed AFP SOS Mediterranean, which charters the boat. They are mainly nationals of Bangladesh, South Sudan, Pakistan or Ghana, according to the NGO.
According to the first elements collected by the AFP, these migrants fleeing Libya spent three days and three nights at sea, before the intervention of the Norwegian flagged vessel.
Last Thursday, in the wake of the resumption of its activities after three months of stoppage linked to the health crisis, the Ocean Viking had provided assistance to 118 migrants also fleeing Libya in two boats. On the night of Monday to Tuesday, one of them, who was immediately placed in quarantine in the context of COVID disease – 19 , received medical evacuation aboard an Italian Coast Guard vessel.
