AURORA SAR

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Hundreds of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean

The 'Geo Barents' and 'Aurora' have assisted 297 migrants during the weekend of July 19-21 in the Mediterranean, while the Italian Coastguard rescued 126 people off the coast of Lampedusa. Like every summer, departures from African coasts to European shores are increasing. Initially, the 'Geo Barents' provided assistance to 226 people during three operations. During the first, which occurred on the morning of July 19 off the coast of Libya, 49 migrants, including nine children and 16 women, who were in distress on an overcrowded inflatable boat, were rescued. On the afternoon, the crew rescued 130 other people in difficulty in a boat near the Tunisian coast. On the morning of July 20, 47 migrants were taken care of in international waters by the 'Geo Barents'. The Italian authorities have assigned the port of Livorno to the humanitarian ship, which was almost 1,100 km from the first rescue site. On the evening of July 20, the 'Aurora' rescued 71 people in collaboration with the sailboat 'Trotamar 3', which, in addition to this joint operation, supported 50 additional migrants. They were all landed in Lampedusa on July 21. The humanitarian ships were supported by the Italian Coastguard. The latter provided assistance to 126 exiles aboard three boats that had left Tunisia. Among the shipwrecked, originally from Ivory Coast and Guinea, were 18 women and as many children. They too were dropped off at the port of Lampedusa. Furthermore, the 'Ocean Viking' disembarked 55 migrants on July 20 in Naples, who were rescued two days earlier in the MalteseSAR zone.

53 migrants disembarked at Pozzallo

On Oct 14 at around noon 53 migrants arrived in the port of Pozzallo aboard the 'Aurora SAR' of the NGO "Sea Watch", who were rescued in recent days south of Lampedusa, at the border between the territorial waters of Tunisia and Italy. The migrants were spotted by NGO workers in the late afternoon of Oct 12 and rescued in good health except for a few cases of dehydration. After the disembarkation operations and the first interrogations by the Ragusa Police Headquarters, the migrants were housed at the port's hotspot. Coordinating the disembarkation operations were carabinieri, police officers, the Guardia di Finanza as well as volunteers from the Civil Protection of Pozzallo. In less than 1,5 hours the disembarkation operations were completed. The ship left the port of Pozzallo in the afternoon towards Tunisia.

84 migrants rescued

The 'Aurora SAR' has rescued 84 people from distress at sea on Sep 19. The ship was assigned the port of Pozzallo to disembark the migrants, where it berthed on Sep 20 at 7.45 a.m. UTC.