MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Teams from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) aboard a search, rescue and medical care ship have saved a total of 308 people, predominantly Eritreans, in the Mediterranean Sea, the aid agency said Sunday.
"Currently onboard #Dignity1 are 308 rescued #people including 80 women & 23 kids. Most are from #Eritrea," MSF Sea wrote on its official Twitter account.
BREAKING: @MSF has relaunched search and rescue operations in the Central #Mediterranean Sea with the #Dignity1 pic.twitter.com/To2hQwOXeb
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) 24 апреля 2016 г.
The MSF ship Dignity I, first launched on June 13, 2015 is a 50 meter-long (164-foot) search-and-rescue ship with a capability to carry 300 people on board. It has a crew of 18 people, including medical staff.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa, trying to escape violence and poverty. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using southern EU nations as transit points.