The humanitarian rescue vessel Open Arms picked up 158 migrants in two rescue operations off the coast of Libya overnight. Since Thursday, three NGO ships have rescued nearly 640 people. Over 400 migrants on board the Ocean Viking will be allowed to disembark in Taranto, Italy.
The teams from two private rescue ships, the Alan Kurdi and the Ocean Viking, made several rescues over the weekend in the Mediterranean. In total, the two ships say they have 484 people on board. They are now hoping to find a safe harbor.
On Thursday night, the Ocean Viking rescued 92 migrants, including pregnant women and children off the Libyan coast. Those rescued were "extremely weak and soaked in petrol" said the rescue team.
The humanitarian vessel Ocean Viking pulled to safety 39 migrants from a rickety wooden boat in the early hours of Friday morning. Almost half of the migrants are unaccompanied minors, the crew said.
The Alan Kurdi and Ocean Viking rescue ships were given permission to dock in Italian ports on Wednesday morning and safely offload their 121 passengers. Both ships rescued migrants from the Mediterranean on November 28 and had been waiting for approval to enter a safe port.
The Libyan coast guard has reportedly taken 30 migrants off the supply ship "OOC Panther" that rescued them on Saturday in the Central Mediterranean. According to charity search and rescue groups, armed Libyan guards had previously boarded the ship in an attempt to force the migrants to return to Libya.
Some 137 migrants picked up overnight in rescue operations off the Libyan coast are waiting for a safe port to come ashore. Seven migrants, including two new-born babies, have already been evacuated to Lampedusa for medical reasons.
The ship Ocean Viking has docked in the Italian port of Messina, carrying 213 migrants saved at sea. But at least seven other people were killed after a boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The humanitarian rescue vessel Ocean Viking picked up 94 migrants on Tuesday after the boat they were traveling on encountered distress at sea. The rescued migrants include women and children.
The two rescue ships Alan Kurdi and Ocean Viking were assigned a safe harbor at the Italian port of Pozzallo in Sicily. The nearly 200 migrants will be distributed to France, Germany and Italy, according to the private rescue organization SOS Mediterranee. A pregnant woman had been evacuated over the weekend, and one man remains missing since the Alan Kurdi rescued 91 migrants on Saturday.
The Ocean Viking has reportedly rescued 104 migrants from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya. Among them are 40 minors, ten women and two babies, according to MSF, which operates the migrant rescue ship.
The migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking is heading to the port city of Taranto in Italy after being given permission to disembark 176 migrants. The migrants, including at least nine children, were rescued from two boats off the Libyan coast on Sunday.