Humanitarian vessels responded to several distress calls in the Central Mediterranean Sea from March 13-16, rescuing hundreds of people while encountering hostility from Libyan patrol groups and what they claim to be a deliberate rerouting to faraway disembarkation points. 

The Ocean Viking, operated by SOS Mediterannee in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), conducted four separate missions, rescuing 361 men, women, and children whose boats had run adrift. 

In a succession of posts on X (formerly Twitter), SOS Mediterannee said that the Ocean Viking rescued twenty-five people from a raft where more than 60 had already perished before help arrived. The 25 were disembarked but the Italian Coast Guard medically evacuated two who were unconscious by helicopter on March 13. One passed away in the hospital. 

The remaining 23 survivors were transferred at the anchorage off the Sicilian port of Catania to land for urgent medical care. 

Death, dehydration, desperation at sea 

Among the survivors was a 14-year-old whom the SOS Mediterrannee referred to on X as Ibrahima*. The teen left Gambia after his parents died and had spent three years in Libya. His attempt to cross the ocean was a gamble for a better life. 

Another unnamed survivor shared his harrowing account of death and desperation on board, waiting for rescue. 

"I departed with approximately 85 people, including 4 women, and a baby. After 2 days, our engine broke, we ran out of food and water. I saw my friends dying and people losing their mind. We waved at fishing vessels but no one saw us. If I had known, I would have never entered that boat," said the survivor, as posted on the SOS Mediterranee X account. 

Meanwhile, 336 people from the other three rescues remain on board the Ocean Viking, which is now heading to Ancona, a seaport city in central Italy. 

“These survivors need urgent care and that means getting them a port of safety as soon as possible,” Jennifer Vibert, IFRC Operations Manager said in a statement. 

In a joint press release, the IFRC and SOS Mediterrannee called for a closer place of safety so survivors can disembark and receive medical assistance more quickly. 

“Two days after more than 60 people died on a raft in the Central Mediterranean, survivors from other rescues this week remain in limbo, far from an approved port of safety.  

The aid groups said that the tragedies of this week underscore the severity of the ongoing crisis in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 100 people had died or disappeared in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean in the first month of the year.

Read more: IOM: Nearly 100 missing or dead in Mediterranean so far this year - InfoMigrants

More than a year lost

Rescue association SOS Humanity recently published data showing that rescue ships in the Mediterranean wasted 374 days last year because of long journeys to reach Italian disembarkation ports.

The data supports the nearly the almost "systematic" assignment of migrant rescue boats to Italian ports far from where they conduct rescue operations.

In 2023 alone, these vessels wasted 374 days – or more than a year – covering the distances, sometimes taking several days to reach ports as far as that of Ravenna, near Bologna, or even that of Genoa.

SOS Humanity report stated that the rescue boats covered more than 150,538 kilometers in one year to take “unnecessarily long” routes. The distance is equivalent to more than three and a half times the distance of a trip around the world.

“This is not a coincidence, but a political tactic,” assures SOS Humanity.

Read more: Faraway Italian port assignments wasted sea-rescue NGO ships 'more than a year' in 2023

Encounter with Libyan Coast Guard

Meanwhile aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) took to X to document and report a tense encounter with a boat from Libyan Coast Guards on Saturday (March 16). MSF was reportedly assisting more than 100 people aboard a wooden boat that had run adrift.

In a video, Fulvia Conte, MSF Search and Rescue Team Leader, described an extremely dangerous situation where a boat from the Libyan Coast Guard "recklessly maneuvered" in front of the MSF rescue vessel, Geo Barents, and attempted to block the rescue, endangering the lives of both the passengers and MSF rescue team. The encounter and the negotiations to de-escalate the situation lasted for more than two hours.

MSF claimed that the Libyan Coast Guard left the scene, with threats about future rescue operations.

"The situation is unacceptable. The same authorities that should ensure the safety of life at sea in the LSRR (Libyan Search and Rescue Region) are the ones that were threatening an international aid organization following international law and rescuing people in distress," said Conte.

Read more: UK strikes £1M deal with Libya to combat irregular arrivals into Europe

"Attempted hostage-taking in the Mediterranean! We witnessed the so-called Libyan Coast Guard trying to forcibly take over a boat from @MSF_Sea in international waters. What has to happen before Italy and the EU end their support for these armed militias?" posted Sea Watch-International who captured a video of the incident from the Sea Bird, the organization's aerial reconnaissance arm.

Other rescue organizations which include SOS Humanity have accused the Libyan Coast Guard of violence and harassment while conducting rescue operations.

Last year, the Italian government handed over a search and rescue boat to Libya's foreign minister in northeastern Italy, reportedly to combat human trafficking along the Mediterranean Sea.

Read more: Italy hands over patrol boat to Libyan government