572 migrants, including two children with disabilities to disembark in Sicily

SOS Mediterranee welcomes the news that nearly 600 migrants have been given the go-ahead to disembark at Augusta, Sicily 

The 572 survivors onboard will soon run out of food (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)
The 572 survivors onboard will soon run out of food (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)

Updated on 9 July at 8:11am 

Nearly 600 migrants, including 183 minors, currently onboard the Ocean Viking will be disembarking in Sicily after being standard at sea for days.

The migrants were rescued during six rescue operations in the Maltese and Libyan search and rescue regions (SRRs) last week.

The NGO SOS Mediterranee announced on Facebook that the migrants were finally given permission to disembark at Augusta, Sicily. 

“The relief is huge that their emergency at sea is almost over, and the six rescues will soon be completed,” the NGO said on Thursday night. 

The Ocean Viking's largest rescue took place between Sunday and Monday. In the pitch black of the night, the SOS Mediterranee rescue team found a wooden boat previously spotted by Pilotes Volontaires' Colibri 2 aircraft.

369 men, women and children were crammed on a large wooden boat at risk of capsizing.

SOS Mediterranee said that such large wooden boats launched from the coast of Libya had not been encountered by its teams in several years.

In another operation on Sunday night, a woman had to be carried on a stretcher to be evacuated from the dinghy onto the Ocean Viking.

And in a rescue operation earlier on Sunday, which saw the rescue of 71 persons from another overcrowded wooden boat, four persons had to be carried onboard via stretcher.

Photo taken during a rescue operation in Malta's SRR (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)
Photo taken during a rescue operation in Malta's SRR (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)

A fourth rescue was performed on Monday, during which 67 people were evacuated from an overcrowded wooden boat in high risk of capsizing in the Maltese SRR. Among them were four women travelling alone, one child and 20 unaccompanied minors.

Over the past days, the SOS Mediterranee medical team said that they treated cases of fuel burns, sun burns, dehydration and extreme exhaustion due to such dire journeys at sea. 

Furthermore, two survivors, both part of the 183 minors onboard have a disability. One of them, partially paralysed, was found onboard a wooden boat along with his wheelchair.

Another photo taken during a rescue operation in Malta's SRR (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)
Another photo taken during a rescue operation in Malta's SRR (Flavio Gasperini / SOS MEDITERRANEE)

Some of the survivors recounted to the team onboard scenes of violence faced in Libya. One woman, a 36-year-old from Cameroon, said that she managed to escape a detention centre with her daughter at 3am on Saturday morning.

"We had spent eight months there. The militias treated us like rubbish, like merchandise. They are raping us," she said. 

Another woman, a 23-year-old Beninese, also opened up about repeated physical and sexual abuse. "I have been tortured since January. I was beaten until my leg was broken. They are raping everyone. I have spent four days without eating, without drinking."

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IMO), 723 people died or went missing in the central Mediterranean so far this year. Several deadly shipwrecks were reported over the last few days alone.