In the second episode of InfoMigrants' podcast Tales from the Border, we climb on board the Ocean Viking, the private rescue ship run by SOS Mediterranée. What is life like on board the 'big boat'? Migrants and crew members recount the moments before, during and after a rescue operation.
Italian authorities have allowed 306 migrants on board the Ocean Viking to disembark in Sicily’s east coast port of Augusta. Meanwhile the Italian coast guard rescued 396 migrants from a wooden fishing boat which had run aground off the southern coast of Sicily.
The last remaining migrants and refugees left the Ocean Viking on Tuesday. The rescue ship had landed in Pozzallo, southern Italy, on Sunday with 549 rescuees onboard.
The disembarkation of more than 800 migrants from the rescue ships Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch 3 began at the weekend. Ocean Viking is hoping to complete the process on Monday, August 9. The migrants were on board the ships since the end of July.
Survivors rescued by the NGO ship SOS Mediterranee say that they had been subjected to violence during their journey towards Europe.They say that had spent three days at sea prior to the rescue and had run out of water and fuel shortly after the journey began.
The NGO-operated migrant rescue ship Geo Barents has been released from the Sicilian port of Augusta. It had been impounded by the Italian coastguard last month, citing technical irregularities.
The two NGO rescue vessels "Ocean Viking" and "Sea-Watch 3" now carry a total of more than 800 people on board, all of whom were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend.
The Red Cross has said its teams would join the crew of the Ocean Viking rescue ship from next month; it also launched an emergency appeal for funds. Meanwhile, German charity Sea-Eye has announced it will sell its search and rescue vessel Alan Kurdi to the new Italian organization ResQ.
The Ocean Viking arrived in Sicily on Friday morning to disembark over 500 migrants it has on board. The crew and migrants had been waiting for a week to be assigned a safe port. Food and water were about to run out when they were assigned a port on Thursday evening.
The humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee has rescued a total of 572 migrants and refugees in Maltese and Libyan waters in recent days. Their vessel Ocean Viking is now looking for a port to disembark the rescuees, as further boats continue to depart from North Africa.
Bilal*, a Sudanese migrant in Libya, knew victims of the April 22 shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. On that day, 130 people are believed to have died at sea as a result of the failure of Libyan and European maritime rescue services as well as complicated weather conditions. After the tragedy, Bilal spoke with InfoMigrants.
Migrant aid groups, the Pope and the UN have denounced the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean which likely claimed the lives of 130 migrants. Libya's coast guard rejected allegations of not doing enough to help.