ROME: Spanish charity Open Arms said on Saturday it had rescued 117 migrants who were crowded onto a precarious wooden boat from Libya in the latest such perilous crossing over the Mediterranean sea. Open Arms said in a statement that it had picked up 117 people on Saturday, including 25 women and a three-year-old boy, mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Libya. The rescue operation took place in international waters 30km off the coast of Libya after the boat left the port of Sabratha under darkness at 1am GMT, according to the statement and a spokesperson for the charity. All the passengers were receiving a medical assess­ment on board the Open Arms vessel, the charity said, without giving more details on where they would be taken. Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023

Source: Libya Today June 18, 2023 02:06 UTC