"MSF search and rescue boat Dignity I contributed to the rescue of around 3,000 people drifting in about 20 rubber dinghies and several wooden boats in the central Mediterranean," MSF said.
The MSF Dignity I boat took 435 people on board, including 13 children under 5 years of age and 110 minors, in an operation carried out on Monday, the statement revealed.
"This is one of the largest numbers of people we have assisted in any single day since our search and rescue operations began over a year ago… This unbelievable number speaks to the desperation people are facing in their countries that pushes them to risk their lives to seek safety and protection in Europe," Nicholas Papachrysostomou, a field coordinator for the Dignity I, was cited as saying in the statement.
More than 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2016, Papachrysostomou added, stressing that EU response to the migration crisis was inefficient and failed to protect migrants and refugees.
Thousands of people have embarked on the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean since 2015 in a bid to escape war and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015.
