NGO saves 30 unaccompanied refugee children from Mediterranean crossing

Save the Children, an international NGO, rescued a total of 200 people on its second outing in response to the growing number of refugee deaths.

MENA

1 min read

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23 September, 2016

More than 6,000 refugees have died in the journey across the Mediterranean since January 2015[Getty]

An international NGO rescued 30 unaccompanied children from the Mediterranean with its new search and rescue vessel this week.

Save the Children conducted three rescue missions on board its new boat, the Vos Hestia and rescued almost 200 refugees, before transferring them to government reception centres in Sicily.

“The number of migrant deaths for 2016 has already surpassed the number who died last year and so we felt we had to get involved,” said Valentina Bollenback, a spokesperson for Save the Children.

“We will make sure the unaccompanied children are taken to centres that are specifically designed to accommodate children where they can be protected,” Bollenback added.

The refugees will arrive to Sicily around lunch-time Friday where they will be transferred to a government registration centre.

The United Nations issued a declaration on Monday, following its summit meeting on refugees, reaffirming that members would “protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status.”

The UN estimates that 6,940 refugees died in the journey across the Mediterranean in the period January 2015 and August 2016.