Spanish NGO run rescue ship Open
Arms has rescued 158 migrants at sea in two separate operations
in less than 12 hours, it said Tuesday.
On Monday night 56 people were picked up in international
waters, it said.
A further 102 were rescued off the Libyan coast on Tuesday
morning.
"On board the Open Arms there are now 158 shipwrecked people
saved from a likely death," it said in a tweet.
"We are the only humanitarians ship in the area," it said.
Almost 500 people are now seeking a safe port, Open Arms
said.
It was referring also to migrants rescued in the last few
days by two other NGO-run rescue ships, the Ocean Viking and the
Alan Kurdi.
On Tuesday the Ocean Viking, with 100 aboard, was assigned
Taranto in Puglia as a safe port.
Most migrants trying to make it to Italy set off from wartorn
Libya.
The renewal of an accord with the Libyan coast guard to pull
back migrants to its shores is threatened by the ongoing
conflict.
Human rights groups have described conditions in many Libyan
migrant detention centres as resembling concentration camps.
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