On Thursday July 7, the crew of the private rescue ship Geo Barents, operated by the humanitarian medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF), carried out six rescue operations. The organization said on its Twitter page that it had been a "busy day at sea" for the crew.

These multiple rescues mean that there are now 315 migrants on board the Geo Barents, the youngest of whom is a three-month-old, tweeted MSF. All the rescues on Thursday, confirmed MSF, "took place in the Maltese SAR zone."

The crew said they were "appalled" by the fact that Armed Forces Malta, who normally is in charge of conducting rescues in their search zone, "were informed but remained silent and inactive." MSF added the Maltese authorities and armed forces had "neglected their legal obligation to provide or coordinate assistance."

The organization also tweeted several pictures of the various rescues, showing abandoned dinghies in the sea and overloaded rescue boats making their way back to the mother ship.

3,138 rescued in one year

This week, Geo Barents celebrated its first year of operations. In total, the ship's crew said they had rescued 3,138 people in distress during this time in 47 missions. The ship disembarked 65 migrants in the Appulian port of Taranto on July 2, and soon after set sail again in the Mediterranean.

On July 6, the ship's crew tweeted that they had finished a round of "intense training," beginning an intense round of rescues immediately thereafter. By July 7, MSF tweeted that they had already rescued 41 people from two fiber-glass boats who had found themselves in distress in the Maltese search and rescue (SAR) zone.

Among those rescued were 15 children, the crew explained. Later that day, the crew added that it had carried out two further rescues "over the course of a six-hour operation." That brought the total number of passengers to 90 people on board, including 29 minors.

73 minors on board

Later on July 7, the crew tweeted that they had carried out a "fifth rescue of the day" and had "121 survivors on board." After that rescue, the crew said they were carrying a total of 50 minors on board, adding that these children had "already been through ordeals that no child should ever have to go through."

A couple of hours later, the team tweeted that they had completed a sixth rescue, bringing the total on board to 315, including 73 minors.

According to the website Marine Traffic Locator, the Geo Barents was in the Central Mediterranean in open sea at the time of writing - somewhere north of the Libyan coast, east of the Tunisian coast and south of Malta.