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SOS Méditerranée is relaunching its operations off Libya with a new vessel, the Ocean Viking (illustration images). AFP Photos / Pau Barrena

The NGO SOS Mediterranean, associated with Médecins sans Frontières announced this Sunday, July 21st the launch of a new rescue campaign off the coast of Libya with the ship Ocean Viking . These operations resume seven months after the immobilization of their vessel Aquarius , private flag.

The new Ocean Viking vessel flying the Norwegian flag has 30 people on board. The ship is heading since July 18 to the Mediterranean from the North Sea. His crew will conduct new rescue operations in the world's deadliest maritime migration route.

Frédéric Penard, SOS Méditerranée's director of operations, recounts the difficulties the NGO had in having a new ship: " Indeed, after the Aquarius stop it was difficult to find a new ship. It was necessary to find an equivalent as robust, as reliable, with a pavilion that allows to face the complex as it is today. It was also necessary to find a shipowner who was ready to follow us and that is what we have today with the Viking Ocean, a sixty-nine meter long ship, faster than the Aquarius, more recent and which flies Norwegian flag. "

►Also read: SOS Mediterranean : the NGO affected, but not poured

Working in partnership with @SOSMedFrance, the new vessel #OceanViking will sail in # Central Mediterranean at the end of the month, under the Norwegian flag> https://t.co/rymMmlZb84 pic.twitter.com/voijHRuCKv

MSF France (@MSF_france) July 21, 2019

Norwegian flag

Aquarius , the former ship of the organization , had successively lost its Gibraltar and Panamanian flag . Both countries blamed him for failing to comply with international legal procedures concerning migrants. For Frederick Penard, Norway is fully in agreement with the maritime convention by granting them a registration:

" Norway's position is what the position of all states should be, that is, respect for maritime law. There is a long maritime tradition in Norway, as in many European states. And fortunately, a number of States continue to support the maritime conventions that they have signed themselves and which simply say simple things : no one is allowed to drown at sea and every captain has the duty to help a person in danger. States must support the captain . " After almost three years at sea, Aquarius rescued 30,000 migrants.

Still as many deaths in the Mediterranean

Although the organization has been able to leave for new operations at sea with the Ocean Viking , the NGO that calls for donations and that the citizens continue to engage. " We need their support and their donations. To charter a ship such as Ocean Viking is 14,000 euros per day. So it's really important, "insists Frédéric Penard. " The departure of the people continues. There are many fewer people leaving today in 2019 than in 2018 or even in 2017, but there are almost always so many deaths, "concludes SOS Méditerranée's director of operations.