FILES) In this file photo taken on November 04, 2016 The 'Iuventa', a rescue ship run by young German NGO 'Jugend Rettet' (Youth Saves), sails off the Libyan coast during a rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy's highest court of appeal on April 24, 2018 rejected a request by the German NGO Jugend Rettet to release its migrant rescue boat, impounded eight months ago on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration. The Italian Court of Cassation did not say why it had turned down the NGO's request for the release of the Iuventa, a 33-metre (110-foot) motorboat seized off the island of Lampedusa on August 2. At the time, the state police force had said that circumstantial evidence had come to light in a probe dating back to October 2016 which suggested the boat was being used for "activities facilitating illegal immigration". ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP
The Ocean Viking on Saturday rescued 196 migrants off Libya, the humanitarian ship’s operator said.
It first picked up 57 people in an inflatable dinghy struggling in international waters off the North African country, SOS Mediterranee said.
In the afternoon, the ship’s crew carried out two additional rescues in the same area, plucking 54 people from a dinghy and 64 others from a wooden vessel.
In their latest operation, they saved 21 people from a wooden vessel.
The total rescued included at least two pregnant women and 33 minors, 22 of them unaccompanied.
According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,146 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe during the first half of 2021.
SOS Mediterranee says it has rescued more than 30,000 people since February 2016, first with the ship Aquarius, then with Ocean Viking.
SOS Mediterranee accuses European Union governments of neglecting coordinated search-and-rescue action to discourage migrants from attempting the crossing from war-torn Libya, where they are often victims of organised crime and militia violence.
Libyan authorities are also accused of forcibly returning intercepted ships to Libya, even when they are in European waters.
A UN Human Rights Office report in late May urged Libya and the EU to overhaul their rescue operations, saying existing policies “fail to prioritise the lives, safety and human rights” of people attempting to cross from Africa.
AFP
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