SOS Méditerranée’s Ocean Viking Rescue Mission: Saving Lives in the Mediterranean

2024-03-13 19:31:34

The Ocean Viking, an ambulance ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée, rescued 25 people off the coast of Libya on Wednesday who had been in “an inflatable boat adrift” for “around a week”, the NGO said in a press release. .

“The rescued people report that many people have died and are now missing,” specifies SOS Méditerranée, whose headquarters is in Marseille (south of France).

“A massive medical relief plan had to be put in place to take care of the survivors who were in an extremely precarious physical and mental state,” continues the NGO, adding that “a request for urgent medical evacuation was made. transmitted for two people found unconscious and in critical condition.”

SOS Méditerranée has rescued more than 39,000 people in the Mediterranean since 2016, mainly in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world.

In 2023, 3,105 migrants died or went missing following trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency. Since January, 278 migrants have died or gone missing, according to the same source.

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