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Migrant Offshore Aid Station News

24 Jun 2016

More than 2,000 Migrants Rescued at Sea -Italy Coastguard

File photo: Italian Navy

Ship crews pulled more than 2,000 migrants from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on Friday, Italy's coastguard said, as people smugglers stepped up operations during two consecutive days of good weather. More than 7,100 people have now been plucked from international waters since Thursday, many of them on the dangerous journey from Libya. Europe's worst immigration crisis since World War Two is in its third year, and there has been little sign of any let up of the flow of people coming from North African to Italy since last year.

23 Jun 2016

Boat Migrant Rescues Surge as Calm Seas Return to Mediterranean

Ships manned by humanitarian organisations, the Italian navy and the coast guard helped rescue more than 2,000 boat migrants on Thursday as calm seas returned to the Mediterranean prompting a surge in departures. The Topaz Responder, a ship run by the Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), said 23 different migrant boats had been spotted in the sea about 20 nautical miles from the Libyan port city of Sabratha. Rescue operations were ongoing, the Italian coast guard said. "The mass movement is probably the result of week-long, unfavourable weather conditions" that have come to an end, MOAS said on Twitter. The Topaz Responder picked up 382 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from three different large rubber boats.

14 Jun 2016

Smartphone App Aims to Aid Migrant Sea Rescues

Photo: International Maritime Organization

A smartphone application that allows users to scan the Mediterranean for boats in distress is being tested by a migrant rescue service, which hopes that crowdsourced information will help it save more people. The I SEA App, available on iTunes, divides a satellite image of the sea route migrants are taking into millions of small plots which are, in turn, assigned to registered users. Each user then monitors their plot through the app and can send an alert to the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and the authorities if they spot potential trouble.

07 Feb 2016

Topaz Responder Saves Refugee Migrants

Topaz Energy and Marine has emerged as an unlikely player in the effort to save refugee migrants risking their lives on the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece’s islands in order to reach Europe. While Topaz’s new emergency response and rescue vessel, the Topaz Responder, was primarily designed to provide safety support for offshore oil and gas producers, it is presently operating as a search and rescue vessel in the Aegean Sea. Contracted by not-for-profit organization Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), the Responder is playing a crucial role scouring the often treacherous waters of the relatively short (10 – 14 nautical miles) crossing, acting as MOAS’ ‘mothership’ in its Aegean Sea Mission.

20 Sep 2015

4,700 Migrants Rescued off Libya Coast

Nearly 4,700 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Saturday as they tried to reach Europe but one woman was found dead, Italy's coastguard said. Tens of thousands of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have tried to cross the Mediterranean this year, often dangerously packed into small vessels unsuitable for the voyage. The coastguard said in a statement it had coordinated 20 rescue operations involving numerous vessels which picked up 4,343 migrants from rubber boats and barges. In one of the inflatable boats a woman's body was found, the coastguard said, without specifying the possible cause of death. Another 335 people were picked up as part of a rescue mission coordinated by Greece and were being directed to a port in Italy to disembark.

01 Sep 2015

Migrant Crisis Promts Call to IMRF for Help

Photo courtesy of IMRF

Mediterranean Rescue Services are in urgent need of support because they are struggling to keep up with the replacement of equipment being used to rescue the increasing numbers of migrants in their waters and have contacted the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) for help. In response, the IMRF is relaunching its ‘Members Assisting Members’ webpage to help identify the need and enable connection to the 2,500 contacts on the database that may be able to help. The three…

06 Aug 2015

More Than 200 Feared Dead in Sinking of Migrant Boat

Hopes faded of finding more survivors on Thursday from a shipwreck in which 200 migrants are feared drowned, as rescue ships were called to the aid of more migrant boats in the same area of the Mediterranean. "We are witnessing a genocide caused by European selfishness," said Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando as the Irish navy ship LE Niamh docked in the port carrying some 370 survivors of Wednesday's disaster and 25 corpses, including three children. Orlando, speaking on Italian television as hearses arrived to take the bodies away, called on European leaders to do more to prevent such disasters and to allow more refugees to re-settle in their countries. After the survivors disembarked, some were escorted back on board to see if they could identify the dead children.

26 May 2015

Maritime Security Threats Abound

Piracy and maritime crime is a complex matter, not one with easily identifiable or actionable answers. Dryad Maritime released its analysis of worldwide reported incidents of piracy and crime against mariners for Q1 2015, a report which includes but is not limited to traditional piracy and maritime crime, including also commentary on other threats and issues; from civil war and terrorism in Yemen and Libya to criminal gang enabled mass migration in the Mediterranean, a migration which resulted in an estimated 1,000 deaths during one particularly bad week in April 2015.

14 May 2015

Italy Reports 3,600 Migrant Rescues in 2 Days

Almost 3,600 migrants have been rescued from overcrowded boats sailing from Africa to Europe over the past 48 hours, Italy said on Thursday, with sea conditions seen as perfect for attempting the crossing. As more than 600 migrants were brought ashore at the port of Catania in Sicily, rescuers plucked another 2,500 from rickety boats off the coast of Libya, the coast guard said. Most of those who arrived in Catania had been picked up by the British warship HMS Bulwark and were Somali and Nigerian, port officials said. With Libya engulfed in strife, people smugglers are increasingly free to pack migrants onto unsafe boats, and they are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, an increase of 30,000 on last year, according to an Interior Ministry projection.

04 May 2015

6,800 Migrants Rescued as Med Seas Abate

One of busiest weekends for sea crossings this year. Around 6,800 migrants were rescued from overcrowded boats crossing to Europe over the weekend, including a mother who gave birth to a baby girl on an Italian navy ship, the coast guard said. Numbers risking the journey in search of a better life have continued to rise two weeks after as many as 900 people drowned in the worst Mediterranean shipwreck in living memory. Crew from the Italian naval vessel Bettica found the woman in labour on a boat overnight -- one of 34 vessels intercepted over the weekend. A photo posted online showed her new daughter sleeping in a makeshift cradle decorated with a pink bow. "Both mother and daughter are in good health," the navy said in a statement.

04 May 2015

Thousands of Migrants Rescued in Mediterranean

The Italian coastguard has said it had coordinated the rescue of thousands of migrants as they sailed across the Mediterranean on rickety boats, bringing the number of people rescued this weekend to 5,800. The migrants were to be taken to the Italian region of Calabria as well as the islands of Sicily and Lampedusa, it said. The bodies of eight migrants were found on board two of the rescued vessels. Two other people drowned after they jumped into the sea to rush towards the rescue teams, the coastguard said. The Italian Coast Guard said the bodies were found in three separate rescue operations off Libya's coast. The Coast Guard was being aided by a tug and a merchant ship in at least some of the rescue efforts.

09 Apr 2015

New Rescue Mission Aims to Curb Migrant Death Toll

A new sea rescue operation is to be launched in May to try to reduce the number of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers killed making the treacherous crossing from Africa to Europe, medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) said on Thursday. Last year was the deadliest on record when more than 3,400 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean, MSF said. This year, the death toll is expected to be even higher, MSF added. There is less help available for boats in distress since the Italian navy's search and rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, closed down in November last year because of a lack of funds.

14 Jul 2014

Philanthropists to Set up Mediterranean Migrant Rescue Service

A philanthropist couple has spent millions of euros to buy a ship which they plan to use to rescue migrants from rickety boats in the centre of the Mediterranean. Malta-based Christopher and Regina Catrambone told the media that they felt compelled to act following an appeal by the Pope after several hundred African migrants drowned off the Italian island of Lampedusa in October. "I remember he had a message for all entrepreneurs, for all people, to do something. He didn't mean do something as in write a cheque, but he meant put your capability, put your heart, put your knowledge at the service of your brother and sister. And help them. So we looked at each other and thought ... we have to do something," said Regina Catrambone.