NGO rescue ship saves 258 migrants off Libya in two operations

By PAOLO SANTALUCIA
Associated Press

ABOARD THE GEO BARENTS (AP) — A nonprofit rescue ship operating off the coast of Libya has saved 258 migrants in two separate operations in the early hours of Friday morning. The first of the two rescues involved a a 7-meter wooden boat filled with 162 migrants, including 17 women and 29 minors, many of them in a cramped area below the deck. The boat had an engine but no system of navigation on it, according to Flavia Conte, rescue coordinator for the Doctors Without Borders rescue ship Geo Barents. The group had spent hours at sea with the boat low in the water. The second rescue involved 96 people on a similar wooden boat, including nine children.