In the late hours of Saturday evening (June 7), the Spanish NGO Open Arms saved 54 people who had been stranded on an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean for several days after suffering shipwreck at sea.

Open Arms said that the group had set off on a rubber boat from the Libyan coast on June 3.

One of the migrant women in the group gave birth to a boy while stuck on the platform, according to a statement made by Open Arms. Another woman had already given birth during the sea journey several days earlier. 

The group of migrants also reportedly included two other young children.

The charity released dramatic images from the rescue on social media, highlighting the dangers of the rescue mission at night.

More rescues after initial operation

The private Open Arms NGO operates a rescue ship in the Mediterranean Sea called “Astral,” which to date has saved the lives of thousands of people trying to reach Europe from the North African coast, according to the organization.

In addition to the rescue of the 54 stranded migrants on the oil platform this weekend, the charity went on to help save the lives of another 109 people during this most recent mission in recent days, who were reported to also have departed from Libya.

The Astral vessel handed out life jackets to the group, including four individuals who were already in the water, while awaiting assistance from another privately operated rescue ship, the Louise Michel, which is run by the elusive British street artist Banksy.

There were 10 children included in the latter group of rescuees.

Such rescues of migrants stuck on oil platforms in the Mediterranean may occur several times per year; most recently, in March this year, a group of 32 migrants was saved in a similar manner by the NGO ship "Sea Watch" after also being forced to spend several days stranded on a gas platform located off the coast of Tunisia.

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Deceiving weather patterns

With warming summer temperatures giving the illusion of a safer passage, a growing number of migrants are once more attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa in small vessels, which in nearly all instances are not designed to withstand the conditions at sea.

Human smugglers are also known to cause overcrowding in these boats, which can result in further complications.

David Llado, the rescue coordinator of the Astral, says that migrants and smugglers alike can be misled by impressions of fair weather and quiet seas, as was the case in this operation:

"We had waves of around one and a half meters and a fairly strong wind. When we arrived, it was already nighttime and everything was much more complicated," he explained.

"In addition, the platform had been abandoned for years and, because of this, many parts of the structure were rotten and part of the floor had fallen into place."

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A decade of deaths at sea

According to Statista and the IOM, at least 31,000 deaths are recorded to have occurred in Mediterranean waters over the past decade. However, it is believed that there are many more instances that have not been reported or filed by authorities.

The vast majority of these deaths -- over 25,000 -- took place in the Central Mediterranean, i.e., the route used by migrants departing from North African countries such as Libya and Tunisia. 

Meanwhile, arrival numbers on this route remain steady, with over 23,000 migrants reported to have reached Italy by sea to date this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

In recent months, however, smugglers have been exploring new routes in a bid to go undetected, with a sharp increase in vessels departing from North Africa heading east to southern Greek islands such as Greece instead of opting for the direct route of hoping to get to Italy or Malta.

with AFP