Doha: The Ocean Viking, a vessel operated by the non-governmental organization SOS Mediterranee, rescued 273 irregular migrants, including seven children, in three separate operations off the coast of Tunisia and Malta.
According to Qatar News Agency, the Marseille-based organization, based in France, said in a statement that the migrants were on board three dilapidated boats in distress, and the crew provided them with necessary medical assistance as they were suffering from exhaustion and seasickness.
The organization stated that the vessel received an alert early yesterday of an overcrowded wooden boat in Tunisia’s search and rescue zone, and 65 people were subsequently rescued. Shortly after, the Ocean Viking responded to a second alert regarding another boat in difficulty. In cooperation with the Sea-Watch rescue vessel Aurora, 77 people, including two children, were identified and transferred to a safe place on board.
In a third operation, the crew spotted a wooden boat in distress within the Maltese search and rescue zone, where 131 people were rescued, including an infant and four children. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2,475 people were killed or missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in 2024, most of them on the Central Mediterranean route, one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. Since the beginning of 2025, approximately 500 people have been killed or missing on the same route.