The Ocean Viking, an ambulance ship chartered by SOS Mediterranee, rescued 126 people on Saturday in the Central Mediterranean during two separate operations off the coasts of Libya and Malta, the Marseille-based NGO announced Sunday.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 2,360 people went missing or died in the Mediterranean in 2024, the vast majority on the central route, considered one of the deadliest in the world. Since the beginning of 2025, nearly 300 migrants have already been recorded missing or dead at sea.
During a first intervention, 59 migrants, including a woman and ten minors, were rescued aboard an overloaded white fiberglass boat.
None of the rescued people were wearing life jackets, the NGO said, adding that at the end of the evacuation, the masked pilot of the boat left the area at high speed.
A second rescue took place late Saturday, involving 67 people crammed onto a wooden boat at risk of capsizing, in the Maltese search and rescue zone, as the Ocean Viking was heading towards northern Italy.
The safe port of Marina di Carrara had been designated by the Italian authorities to receive the survivors. Again, no passengers were wearing life jackets.
SL/ac/Sf/fss/as/APA