On Saturday (April 1) the private rescue ship Ocean Viking, run by the organization SOS Mediterarranee, tweeted that it had rescued 92 migrants from and "overcrowded and deflated rubber boat in international waters off Libya."

The group of migrants includes nine women and around 40 unaccompanied minors. Those rescued, said SOS Mediterranee in a tweet, are "generally exhaused, some with fuel burns and injuries."

Shortly after the rescue, explained SOS Mediterranee, the Italian authorities assigned the southern port of Salerno, near Naples, for the group to disembark. From the position where the Ocean Viking was on Saturday, that meant sailing about 450 nautical miles, or about 833 kilometers, said the organization.

The weather at the time, they said, was "deteriorating" and they feared that "prolonged navigation will impact the fragile condition of the survivors."

At the time of writing, on Monday (April 3), the ship was heading up the coast of southern Italy and was located on a level with the Italian city of Catanzaro, according to live data on the website Marine Traffic Locator.

Shots fired by Libyan coast guards

The Ocean Viking left the port of Syracuse in Sicily to begin its current mission on March 17. It spent a day doing drills at sea and preparing for the next rescues.

On March 25, the crew of the Ocean Viking reported that a patrol vessel from the Libyan Coast Guard had fired shots across the heads of those on board the Ocean Viking. A radio message was received, telling them to leave the area as they were in "Libyan waters."

The crew of the Ocean Viking said it was in international waters at the time, although within the area demarcated as the Libyan Search and Rescue Zone. No one was hurt during the incident, and the crew of the Ocean Viking sent a report to the Norwegian Maritime Authority.

'Overcrowded boat...with erratic steering'

A week later in that same zone, the Ocean Viking said it spotted an "overcrowded white rubber boat with about 90 shipwrecked people on board, with an erratic steering."

The sighting, they said, was confirmed by a search and rescue plane, Colibri 2, operated by the organization Pilotes Volontaires (Voluntary Pilots). The boat appeared to be on the edge of a no-go area in the zone, near the oil field platforms, notes the crew in the log of their operations.

The crew say they notified the Bouri oil field and another ship to obtain permission to enter the no go area but didn’t receive an answer. They then sent an email to the Libyan Command, copying in the Italian and Maltese command as well as the Norwegian Maritime Authority to "report the distres situation and to inform that Ocean Viking RHIBSs are going to be launched as soon we have the greenlight for closer assessment."

About 20 minutes later, the Ocean Viking crew launched their rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) as they said the rubber boat was exiting the no go area of the Bouri oil field. About half an hour later, after again reporting the situation to the Libyan command, the Ocean Viking began evacuation of the people on the boat.

Arrivals in Italy

According to Italian government statistics last updated on March 31, 27,280 migrants have so far crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italy this year. The vast majority have either been rescued by the Italian coast guard or border police (Guardia di Finanza) or arrived under their own steam.

Arrivals in the first three months of 2023 have all been far greater than those in the equivalent months of 2021 and 2022. The majority of arrivals this year came from Ivory Coast and Guinea, followed by nationals from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Egypt, in descending order.

From the beginning of January to March 27 this year, 2,641 unaccompanied minors disembarked in Italy. Last year for the whole of the year, the figure stood at 14,044 and in 2021, at 10,053.