The SOS Méditerranée ship -

NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP

One hundred and six.

One hundred and six more people were rescued Friday evening off Libya by the

Ocean Viking

, the SOS Mediterranean sea rescue vessel, bringing to 374 the number of survivors recovered in 48 hours by the Marseille-based NGO.

"106 people were rescued (…) in international waters 28 nautical miles [about fifty kilometers] from the Libyan coast," tweeted SOS Mediterranean.

"Most of the people on the dinghy were found to be very intoxicated by the fuel vapors by the rescue team," she continues.

The survivors are from Guinea, Sudan and Sierra Leone, according to the same source.

374 people on board the ship

“Two requests for a safe place were addressed to the Libyan maritime authorities.

Without a response, we asked for support from the Maltese and Italian maritime authorities, ”the NGO added in a tweet this Saturday at midday.

“The weather will start to deteriorate.

We must disembark in a safe place as quickly as possible ”, she urges.

Friday morning, the "ambulance ship" had rescued 149 people in two "boats in distress".

The day before, during its first rescue since returning to sea, the ship had recovered 119 people.

Among them were 58 minors as well as four babies, including one only one month old.

Since Thursday, 374 people are on board the ship.

165 of them are minors, and the vast majority, 131, unaccompanied, SOS Mediterranean told AFP.

There are 35 children (5-15 years), 21 babies (0-4 years) and two pregnant women, one of whom is eight months old, detailed SOS Mediterranean.

More than 1,200 migrants perished in 2020 in the Mediterranean

The

Ocean Viking

returned to sea from Marseille on January 11, after being stranded for five months in Italy where the authorities imposed costly work on it.

The

Ocean Viking

is currently the only NGO relief ship in the region, according to NGO director Sophie Beau, "the others being blocked by the Italian authorities as was the

Ocean Viking

before".

The candidates for exile from various countries mainly leave Tunisia and Libya to reach Europe via Italy, whose coasts are the closest.

In total, more than 1,200 migrants perished in 2020 in the Mediterranean, the vast majority of them on this central route, according to the International Migration Office.

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VIDEO.

The "Ocean Viking" "is still waiting for a response from European states" about 356 refugees rescued

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  • Migrants