What It's Like Aboard an NGO Ship Rescuing Hundreds of Migrants in the Mediterranean
There are no sirens when the call comes in. No alarms or shouting. Just a calm voice over the radio in the darkness of the cabin: “All stations, all stations.”
Then it’s only belt buckles clanging and zippers being pulled as everyone hurries in silence to get dressed. The ship’s rhythmic engine roars to life as it heads toward its target.
It’s 6 a.m. on the Vos Hestia, a Save the Children migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived in the search and rescue zone in international waters, 12 miles off the coast of Libya, at dusk the previous evening to patrol an area where this year more than 2,400 people have died trying to reach Europe. ...