MOAS, MSF to redeploy migrants rescue operation

Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), a Malta-based NGO, on Tuesday announced it would redeploy its rescue and medical aid operation in the Mediterranean on Saturday together with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which will take care of the post-rescue care of migrants.

The operation will run from May to October, when thousands of people are expected to risk their lives attempting to reach safe haven in Europe.

"The people making these crossings are people like us, with hopes and aspirations. They do not deserve to be left at sea to die," said MOAS director Martin Xuereb.

Last year, MOAS conducted a 60-day mission with a team of rescuers and paramedics on a 40-meter boat, including two drones and two lifeboats, and saved some 3,000 lives.

It has so far been funded solely by the young Malta-based Italo-American couple Christopher and Regina Catrambone, who are in their 30s. However, public donations have also been called for to run the humanitarian project costing 400,000 euros (438,420 U.S. dollars) per month.

The Mediterranean Sea has in the last two decades witnessed the drowning of more than 20,000 migrants, most departing from Libya's coast in overcrowded, not seaworthy boats coordinated by traffickers.

Ten days ago, at least 850 people drowned after a large boat capsized south of Lampedusa in the worst-ever migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea. Endit