Rescue ship seeks EU port for 572 migrants found in Mediterranean

Ocean Viking

The Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship urged EU members on Tuesday to allow 572 people picked up in the Mediterranean Sea over three days to be brought ashore. The NGO vessel carried out one of its largest rescues in years on Sunday night, involving a boat that set off from Libya with 369 men, women and children and that was at risk of capsizing. ‘Such large unseaworthy wooden boats launched from the coast of Libya had not been encountered by our teams in several years,’ the Ocean Viking's operator, SOS Mediterranee, said in a statement. The operation was Ocean Viking's sixth rescue within days and brought the total number of migrants onboard to 527.