Migrant search and rescue: a view from the waters off Libya
It’s 5.30am, and under a pinkish sky in waters north of Libya, the crew of Aquarius, a ship chartered by the French-German NGO SOS Méditerranée is preparing to bring on board 741 migrants who had been rescued by an offshore supply vessel a day earlier.
A rib boat shuttles back and forth, bringing to safety a dozen or so shell-shocked looking women, some heavily pregnant or with burns due to oil spills on cheaply-made rubber boats, a three-month-old baby …
