27 April 2021
130 people died after their rubber dinghy was shipwrecked off the coast of Libya in a storm. The Italian, Libyan and Maltese authorities failed to provide assistance to the vessel, despite knowing of the situation. Instead, the NGO-operated ship Ocean Viking headed towards the area - but a night storm meant they arrived too late. The incident is the latest in a long line of similar events, which the crew of Ocean Viking say they should not have to deal with - rather, states should be fulfilling their international legal obligations to rescue people in distress at sea.
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Source: The Guardian, 25 April 2021:
"A mayday call, a dash across the Mediterranean … and 130 souls lost at sea
The weather was already turning when the distress call went out. A rubber dinghy with 130 people onboard was adrift in the choppy Mediterranean waters.
On the bridge of the Ocean Viking, one of the only remaining NGO rescue boats operational in the Mediterranean, 121 nautical miles west, stood Luisa Albera, staring anxiously at her computer screen and then out at the rising storm and falling light at sea.
When the distress call from Alarm Phone, the volunteer-run Mediterranean rescue hotline, was received late on Wednesday, the Ocean Viking was already engaged in a rescue mission. All day the crew had been combing the horizon for another vessel, a wooden boat with 42 people onboard, but so far their search had been in vain. No sign of life or position had been received since early morning.
A seasoned sailor who had already conducted dozens of rescue missions, Albera knew that time was short. A violent storm was coming, and it would take the Viking hours to reach the dinghy.
She also knew that if the they didn’t turn around, the 130 people onboard would most likely be left to die. At 5.30pm, the Ocean Viking abandoned its search for the other vessel and altered its course: Albera had decided to go after the rubber boat."
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