The Humanity 2, SOS Humanity's second NGO migrant search and rescue ship, arrived in the Sicilian port of Syracuse on Friday (November 14) after a short voyage from the French Riviera.

The 24-meter-long vessel will be equipped for and converted to its intended use for rescue missions of up to 100 people.

The ship will include a shelter for women and children (protected from the wind and poor weather conditions), a fast rescue launch, and equipment for rescue operations.

In the coming days, the vessel is expected to be transferred to a shipyard to be transformed, starting in December, into a fully equipped monitoring and rescue ship.

In mid-2026, Humanity 2 will begin carrying out rescue missions. "We are integrating our rescue fleet with a fast sailboat and our crews are joining forces. We will thus increase in a significant manner our capacity to save people from shipwrecks," said SOS Humanity CEO Till Rummenhohl.

"The Humanity 2 ship is more than simply a rescue ship. It is also involved in defending human rights, European values that our politicians often choose to ignore when we are speaking about the Mediterranean -- and especially on the deadly route between Tunisia and Lampedusa. The crew will become the eyes and ears of public opinion," he promised.

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MSF to resume rescue missions with new ship Oyvon

The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is also ready to resume its search and rescue missions in the central Mediterranean with a new ship, Oyvon, which is waitin at the port of Licata, on the island of Sicily.

The NGO ceased its rescue operations almost a year ago with the Geo Barents ship, which had been active between May 2021 and December 2024.

The ship was placed under administrative seizure for 60 days in September 2024 for alleged violations of safety regulations during a rescue mission.

Oyvon, which means "hope for the island" in Norwegian, has been refitted and equipped to conduct SAR operations on "one of the world's deadliest migration routes. Oyvon was previously operated as an ambulance vessel in Norway," according to an MSF press release on November 12.

Some 20 meters long, the vessel has two decks to receive people onboard and a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB). A doctor and a nurse will be part of the Oyvon crew.

"As a medical and humanitarian organization, our commitment to being present at sea and supporting people on the move is unwavering," said Juan Matias Gil, MSF search and rescue representative.

"We have returned to carry out the duty of rescuing those who find themselves in distress at sea, forced to take unseaworthy boats, after having endured deplorable and inhumane conditions, detention, abuse, and extortion, in Libya."

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