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The humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee announced Sunday that it has relaunched relief operations off Libya seven months after abandoning operations using its ship Aquarius and despite the refusal of European ports to accept migrants.
Ocean Viking, Norwegian pavilion, "will carry out search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean" for SOS Mediterranean and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the group said in a statement.
"While people are still fleeing Libya through one of the most perilous crossings in the world and there is virtually no life-saving means available in the central Mediterranean, it was imperative that SOS Mediterranee and MSF are back at sea after the end of their operations with Aquarius in December 2018. "
After almost three years of activities in which he saved some 30,000 migrants, Aquarius was forced to cease operations because of what the group described as obstruction by some European countries.
According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 426 people have died trying to cross the central Mediterranean this year.
SOS Mediterranean said the migrants were trying to "escape the escalating conflict in Libya and the deplorable conditions in Libyan detention centers".
This new operation comes one month after the arrest in Italy of Carola Rackete, German captain of Sea-Watch 3, to be moored without permission to land to the rescued migrants.
Rackete was detained for several days after the Sea-Watch 3 struck an Italian police motorboat while it was entering the port of Lampedusa Island while it was forbidden to enter Italian waters.
She argued that she was forced to avoid a human tragedy and bring ashore 40 migrants who had been rescued in the Mediterranean on 12 June.
"Difficult campaign"
"For a year now, we have witnessed a deterioration in the European Union's reaction to the evolution of the human tragedy in the central Mediterranean," said SOS Mediterranean operations chief Frederic Penard.
EU states have "continued a tough campaign of criminalization against civil society rescue vessels and, more importantly, there is still no coordinated, sustainable and shared disembarkation mechanism in accordance with maritime law ".
He told AFP that Ocean Viking would not enter Libyan territorial waters.
"Our presence at sea is about saving lives, and we hope that countries will understand and join us because there is no other solution in the central Mediterranean.
"It is wrong to say that it is the rescue vessels that encourage (the migrants) to cross, even without the boats, the departures continue and a very large number of drownings have been reported."
Founded in partnership with MSF, the Ocean Viking has 31 people, including 13 members of the SOS Mediterranean search and rescue team, nine MSF staff members and nine marine crew members.
Libya, plagued by chaos since the 2011 uprising that killed dictator Moammar Gaddafi, has long been an important means of transit for migrants, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, who are desperate to reach the country. ;Europe.
Italy is increasingly opposed to the acceptance of undocumented migrants on its territory under a populist government.
The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, spoke on the burden imposed on Italy, constituting the entry point for many migrants arriving by sea, while the rest of the EU is divided on attempts to redistribute asylum seekers between Member States.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Salvini protested against what he said: France and Germany have defined the EU migration policy.
"Enough to make choices only in Paris and Berlin, Italy is more willing to accept all migrants arriving in Europe," he wrote, accompanied by a letter addressed to his French counterpart.
"France and Germany can not decide on migration policy by ignoring the claims of the most exposed countries such as us and Malta," wrote the far right minister.
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