Ships Report Rescue of Almost 270 Migrants In Mediterranean.

By Johannes Neudecker, dpa

Rome (dpa) – Humanitarian aid volunteers rescued almost 270 migrants in distress in the Mediterranean Sea during several operations since Sunday.

The German-flagged Humanity 1 rescue ship saved more than 100 people from distress at sea off the coast of Libya on Sunday, the organization SOS Humanity reported on Monday.

A smaller German ship named Louise Michel was also involved in the operation, reporting that the migrants were travelling in an ill-suited rubber dinghy.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also rescued more than 160 people in the last two days. On Monday, the group’s Geo Barents ship took 90 people, including 35 children, on board from an inflatable raft near the Libyan coast.

On Sunday, MSF rescued more than 70 migrants in the Mediterranean. The passengers included multiple children, the group tweeted. The people had taken off from the Libyan coast in an overfilled boat on Saturday.

The Italian coastguard rescued about 30 people whose boat had sunk near the southern island of Lampedusa on Sunday, the ANSA news agency reported on Monday. A total of four people remain missing.

Lampedusa lies between Sicily and Tunisia and is frequented by migrants arriving in boats because of its proximity to the northern African coast.

Such attempts to reach Europe are becoming ever more common as people try to escape hardship and violence. But, because the seas are rough and the boats not safe, many are ending up in trouble and need to be rescued by ships like Geo Barents, which began its current tour last week.

Critics say migrants are more likely to take the trip because they know they’ll be rescued. Many end up being taken to Greece and Italy, since they are the closest to where the people are rescued, but both countries have bristled at being asked to take in migrants when other countries in the EU seem unwilling.