French charities SOS Mediterranean and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF — Doctors Without Borders) rescued around 81 migrants off the coast of Libya on Sunday, bringing the total number of those it rescued from Friday to 211, reported Yahoo News.
The Ocean Viking charity ship, jointly operated by SOS Mediterranean and MSF, regularly patrol international waters looking for boats leaving the Libyan coast.
“We’re the only ones in the area, the Libyan coastguard don’t respond” to distressed migrant vessels, Nicholas Romaniuk, SOS Mediterranean search and rescue coordinator, told AFP.
He added that fair weather conditions would likely encourage more departures from Libyan shores.
Sunday’s rescue was the third in as many days. The ship had already picked up 85 migrants on Friday and another 80 on Saturday during its first two rescue missions, before Sunday’s operation.
Most of those the ship picked up over the past three days are Sudanese men, including the 81 rescued on Sunday. The 69-meter (226-foot) cargo ship has 31 crew members and can comfortably hold up to 200 migrants. Those rescued on Friday were mainly from Senegal as well as Cote d’Ivoire, who had come to Libya to work but got caught up in the fighting between rival governments in the North African country.
A second migrant ship, the Open Arms, remained at sea on Sunday with 121 migrants on board after being denied permission to enter ports in Italy and Malta.
The rescues come amid tension between Italy and other European Union states, with the Italian government refusing to let migrants land on its shores unless its EU partners to do more help and take them in.
On Sunday, Open Arms founder Oscar Camps made an appeal to European governments for help, especially Italy, which is the closest safe port.
“Tenth day onboard on a scorching Sunday in August. We have 160 reasons to carry on, 160 human beings who have the right to disembark at a safe port. Shame on you, Europe,” Camps tweeted.
