Prior to this latest operation, the Geo Barents rescued 130 people from an “overcrowded double-decker wooden boat” and 49 other migrants, including nine children and 16 women.
The Geo Barents ship belonging to Doctors Without Borders was sailing to Livorno, Italy, with 226 migrants on board after three rescues in the Mediterranean, the NGO said.
Most of the 226 migrants on board the Geo Barents are in very difficult conditions after spending several days without food or water in the central Mediterranean, the NGO added.
The last of the three rescue operations took place today, when the NGO ship managed to save “47 people who were in danger on an overcrowded boat in international waters,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on its social media.
“People were exhausted after spending almost two days at sea. They were all rescued by the team and are now receiving treatment,” he said.
Prior to this latest operation, Geo Barents rescued 130 people from an “overcrowded two-deck wooden boat” and 49 other migrants, including nine children and 16 women, from an inflatable boat.
“Survivors told us they spent two days at sea without food or water,” MSF said, adding that during the latest rescue, the boat was “very unstable” and that some of the rescued migrants have “medical needs that require attention on land.”
The MSF ship is now sailing towards Livorno in northern Italy, a port designated by the Italian authorities, “almost 1,100 kilometres from the first rescue site,” the NGO said.
The far-right Italian government, led by Giorgia Meloni, has adopted a policy of so-called “distant ports” for rescue groups in the Mediterranean, which are forced to sail hundreds or thousands of kilometres to disembark with the rescued migrants.
In 2024, more than 28,000 migrants arrived in Italy via the central Mediterranean route, one of the most dangerous in the world.
This figure is much lower than that recorded in the same period last year, when more than 73,000 people arrived on Italian soil by this route.
Source: Observadora
