There have been a series of rescues and arrivals of migrants in the Central Mediterranean this week. The crews of the rescue ships Ocean Viking and Sea-Eye-5 rescued 295 migrants between them. In addition, more than 1,000 people arrived on the island of Lampedusa.
It has been another busy week in the Mediterranean for rescues and arrivals. Since November 4, 2,137 migrants have disembarked on Italian shores, after either being rescued by the Italian authorities, by private NGO rescue ships, or by reaching Italian territory by boat. More than 1,000 of them arrived on the island of Lampedusa.
Private sea rescue organizations rescued at least 295 people from seven different craft, with the crew of Ocean Viking, operated by the organization SOS Mediterranee, picking up 185 of those from four different small boats.
Dawn to dusk rescues
At dawn on November 6, the Ocean Viking’s crew came across a boat carrying 140 migrants, including five women and four children. They said the double-decker boat was sailing in international waters off Libya when they spotted it.
"The boat was heavily overcrowded and listing dangerously," SOS Mediterranee stated on its X page. "Many of the survivors are suffering from fuel burns and seasickness," they added.
Later on November 6, the crew of Ocean Viking carried out a second rescue. Thirty-eight migrants were on board a "flimsy rubber boat in the Maltese Search and Rescue region." The group had sent out several Mayday relays, and the Italian authorities sent the Ocean Viking towards the scene to help with the rescue.
At dusk on that day, the crew on the Ocean Viking received an alert from Alarm Phone, the organization that monitors migrant journeys across the Mediterranean. They found a fiberglass boat with seven migrants on board. The boat, said those on board, had run out of fuel. By this point, the Ocean Viking had 185 migrants on board.
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'Cruel measure'
On November 7, the Italian authorities directed the Ocean Viking to sail towards Genova to disembark the rescued migrants. SOS Mediterranee commented on X that this would entail "three days of unnecessary navigation to reach a distant port," adding that it was a "cruel measure for survivors on board."
They said that sailing from the rescue zones in the Central Mediterranean to ports further north had added a total of 70 days in 2024 to the Ocean Viking’s journeys and cost around half a million euros.
110 rescued by Sea-Eye-5
The crew of the Sea-Eye-5, operated by the German-based sea rescue organization Sea-Eye has also been busy this week. On November 6, they posted that they had carried out three separate rescues, bringing 110 people on board, in waters not far from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The first boat carrying 93 people was spotted with the help of the sailing ship Trotamar III, operated by the organization Boat Spotting. A total of 62 were taken on by Trotamar, and 31 by Sea-Eye 5. Later they came across a second boat with 25 migrants on board.
On November 7, the crew disembarked the migrants it rescued in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. In a press release, the Sea-Eye organization stated that on humanitarian grounds, their ship Sea-Eye 5 is not equipped to carry migrants on board for more than 24 hours, and so wouldn’t be able to sail to a more distant port.
Before the final disembarkation in Pozzallo, 31 people were taken off the Sea-Eye 5 by the Italian authorities and brought to Lampedusa. An additional person was then taken off, for medical reasons, by the Italian authorities.
Arrivals and transfers on Lampedusa
A total of 569 migrants from Bangladesh, Algeria, Syria, Gambia, Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, Eritrea and Ethiopia arrived on November 5 in 13 different boats.
On November 6, La Sicilia reported that 442 people in total arrived on Lampedusa on 11 different small boats. Arrivals in the "hotspot" on Lampedusa and subsequent transfers towards the Italian mainland and Sicily have continued all week, reported La Sicilia.
During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, La Sicilia reported that the Italian coast guard had rescued a boat carrying at least 50 migrants, including people from Gambia, Ivory Coast, Mali and Nigeria. They told the authorities they had left the Tunisian port of Sfax and had paid around 1,500 Tunisian dinars (around 448 euros) for their journey.
Another boat, reportedly carrying migrants mostly from Syria and Sudan, was brought in to Lampedusa by the Italian coast guard. They told the authorities they had left Ras Agedir in Libya and had paid between 3,500 and 5,000 dollars (between about 3,255 euros and 4,650 euros).
According to a report in the regional newspaper La Sicilia, on November 7, there are now 742 migrants staying in the first reception center on the island of Lampedusa. The Italian authorities said they hoped to transfer at least 164 people on November 8 towards the Sicilian mainland. Another 184 migrants are expected to be flown to Bologna in the north-east of Italy via an IOM plane, and another 297 will be transferred by ferry.
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