Rome (dpa) – The Ocean Viking rescue vessel has pulled 67 people from the central Mediterranean Sea, SOS Mediterranee the private organization that runs the boat, said on Sunday.
Twenty of those rescued from an overcrowded wooden boat were unaccompanied minors, added the organization on Twitter.
The latest rescue comes just hours after the group said it had rescued 21 people, four of whom were unaccompanied minors, from the same area. There are now over 130 people on the vessel.
The crew has been on the move in the central Mediterranean for the past few days to rescue migrants who set off from North Africa in mostly small, often overcrowded boats towards the EU.
On Saturday evening, the United Nations Refugee Agency in Libya reported that the Libyan coastguard had picked up more than 120 people in the Mediterranean Sea and brought them back to Libya.
Forty-three migrants were also considered missing on Saturday after a boat accident off the coast of Tunisia. Their boat had sunk while attempting to cross from Libya toward Europe, according to a spokesman for the Tunisian Red Crescent.
