AUGUST 2024

Picture MSF Sea @MSF_Sea August 2024

August 1	Nadir rescues 27 people who had been in distress at sea for 3 days. Many have burns from the toxic fuel-saltwater-mix. All survivors disembark safely in Lampedusa (1). Ocean Viking spots a fiberglass boat with 29 people in the Italian Search and rescue area. The crew is instructed to assist them before Italian Coast Guards transfer everybody to their vessel. Survivors were at sea for 2 days, almost out of fuel & without food nor water. SOS Humanity rescues another distress case with 60 people on an unseaworthy and overcrowded fibreglass boat. The survivors – including some children, at least one pregnant woman and a cat – set off from Tripoli, Libya, the night before (2).
August 8	Louise Michel rescues 85 people. The survivors report having being at sea for 4-5 days in an unseaworthy wooden boat.
August 9	55 people including 6 children who had left from Sfax-Tunis 3 days before in precarious conditions are rescued by Astral after an Alarm Phone alert.
August 11	Humanity 1 crew rescues 13 people after an alert by Alamr Phone, from a small rubber boat which was already filled with more than 30 cm of water. Life Support rescues 37 people and 28 people in two different rescue operations. Nadir finds an overcrowded boat with 56 persons on board. After distributing life jackets and rescue blankets as protection against the sun, the crew goes with the boat for 8 hours towards Lampedusa before the Italian Coast Guard takes the people on board.
August 12	Nadir finds an unmaneuverable fiberglass boat thanks to a distress call from Alarm Phone. There are so many people on board, that the crew evacuated 14 people onto the Nadir for safety, including five children aged 4 months to 7 years. Astral finds 110 people adrift on a crowded wooden barge, including children, and a corpse. Some are in the water. The survivors are embarked by the Italian coast guards (3).
August 15	57 people are found in distress onboard an overcrowded rubber boat in international waters. They are all rescued by the Geo Barents team (4) after an Alarm Phone alert and the support of Pilotes Volontaires.
August 23	Geo Barents conducts two additional rescues for people in distress at sea. A total of 191 people are now safe on board.
August 24	With the support of Colibri and in cooperation with the Italian coast guards, Mare Jonio rescues 67 people in international waters (5). Nadir assists 21 people in a wooden boat in distress, which was spotted by Pilotes Volontaires. Nadir accompanies the boat towards Lampedusa until a vessel of the Italian Coast Guard takes everyone on board.
August 25	Nadir locates a boat with 50 people which fled from Libya. All people are later evacuated to an Italian Coast Guard ship.
August 27	Nadir searches for a distress at sea spotted by Pilotes Volontaire and later in the night finds a boat with19 people in distress. Geo Barents (MSF) is detained for 60 days, accused of violating the provisions of the so-called Cutro decree.
August 30	The crew of the Sea-Watch 5 rescues 289 people from an overcrowded wooden boats in a total of four operations. Among those rescued are 38 children and minors, some of them unaccompanied. Nadir accompanies 14 people towards Lampedusa. The people had left Djerba, Tunisia, 3 days ago but lost course. A few hours later, Nadir finds a wooden boat following an Alarm Phone alert. On board are 31 people, of which 17 were minors.