The Ocean Viking will be able to go to Italy.

Rome has assigned this humanitarian ship of SOS Méditerranée a safe port to disembark the 113 people rescued in the Mediterranean during the first operation of the boat since its docking in France in November, the NGO announced on Tuesday.

The ship took the direction of the port of Ravenna (north-eastern Italy), assigned by the Italian authorities, said the NGO, while deploring the "four long days of navigation" necessary to get there.

Migrants rescued overnight

The migrants on board the ship were rescued overnight from Monday to Tuesday in international waters dependent on the Maltese search and rescue area, close to the Libyan area, the NGO said.

“As we head north, we fear that other people in distress at sea cannot be rescued”, worried SOS Méditerranée, although “(relieved) for the survivors on board” of the Ocean Viking.


Among the rescued migrants, “23 women, some of whom are pregnant, around thirty unaccompanied minors and three babies, the youngest of whom is only three weeks old,” said SOS Méditerranée, headquartered in Marseille.

They were on “an overloaded black inflatable boat, in total darkness”, according to the NGO.

Showdown between Paris and Rome

In mid-November, the Ocean Viking had landed in Toulon, with 230 migrants rescued between Libya and Italy, after three weeks of wandering in search of a safe port and a diplomatic showdown between Paris and Roma.

The French government had agreed to welcome the boat "on an exceptional basis" after Italy's refusal, causing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,998 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 1,369 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty try to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are 300 km away from Italy.

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