Ocean Viking picks up 75 migrants off Libya

The Ocean Viking humanitarian rescue vessel, chartered by the NGO SOS Méditerranée.

AFP - GIOVANNI ISOLINO

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

On the night of Sunday May 22 to May 23, a boat in distress with 75 people on board was rescued by the 

sailboat chartered by the NGO, ResQship, assisted in this operation by the ship

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Initially, the sailboat

, on a rescue observation mission, spotted an inflatable boat with a broken engine 42 miles off the Libyan coast.

While the crew was tending to first aid for the many people on board, a Libyan Coast Guard vessel demanded the surrender of the migrants.

The German NGO ResQship explains in a press release that in view of international, European and German law, it refused to hand over the survivors to the Libyan authorities.

The

, a ship chartered by the European NGO SOS Méditerranée, then came to pick up the migrants.

One injured was taken care of.

🔴 This night 75 people.

were rescued by the #OceanViking from 1 inflatable in distress 42 miles from the Libyan coast, after the sailboat #Nadir assisted them for hours.

Seriously injured man was evacuated on a stretcher & is receiving sustained medical attention pic.twitter.com/S4tfDiPHed

— SOS MEDITERRANEE France (@SOSMedFrance) May 22, 2022

The ship now has 233 rescued people on board, including 40 women (six are pregnant).

According to the IOM, 1,553 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2021.

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