Published: Less than 20 min ago
More than 400 migrants have been rescued from a boat off Malta after an eleven-hour rescue operation, the organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says.
MSF’s rescue vessel Geo Barents responded to a distress call from the boat the migrants were on and reached it at four o’clock on Tuesday morning after several hours in a stormy Mediterranean.
Due to severe weather, the distressed migrants could not be immediately rescued onto the MSF boat. Only early in the afternoon could Geo Barent’s small rescue boats be launched and pick up those in distress.
“After more than eleven hours, the rescue work is now over and a total of 440 people, among them eight women and 30 children, are now safe on board the Geo Barents and are being cared for by our team,” writes MSF on Twitter.
In February, Italian authorities accused MSF of violating the government’s new rules for life-saving missions in the Mediterranean and detained the Geo Barents in port.