AROUND 199 refugees have been saved in the central Mediterranean by NGO rescuers for the first time since European states blockaded seven civilian rescue ships over a month ago.

The Open Arms rescue ship left Barcelona, Spain, on November 4 and headed to international waters off the coast of Libya — where a protracted civil war and widespread human rights abuses in the country’s migrant detention camps has caused thousands to flee across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Late on Tuesday afternoon the Open Arms’s crew brought on board 88 people they found covered in petrol in a deflating rubber boat.

Then, this morning, a plane operated by the European Border and Coastguard Agency, Frontex, alerted the Open Arms to another overcrowded and damaged rubber boat in distress carrying around 111 people.

"When we found them, we handed life jackets and masks to everyone," Open Arms spokeswoman Laura Lanuza told the Star as the crew were carrying out the rescue.

"And while we were proceeding to embark everyone, suddenly the floor in the middle of their dinghy ripped apart and people fell into the water and began panicking.

"We know for now that there are at least five dead. We tried to reanimate one of the babies, but the rest of the children are OK now.

“We are still in the water trying to rescue everyone.”

Later this afternoon, Open Arms announced that it has brought the survivors on board.

“The medical team is working right now on the most serious cases,” Ms Lanuza said. “We have asked for their evacuation.”

“We don’t know exactly how many people we have rescued because we haven’t counted them yet.”

In September and October the Italian coastguard authorities prevented the Alan Kurdi, Sea Watch 4, Sea Watch 3, Ocean Viking, Aita Mari and the Mare Jonio rescue ships from leaving port after issuing them with a list of supposed safety irregularities.

The Louise Michel, a rescue ship funded by street artist Banksy, is also unable to leave its home port in Spain after its registration was also challenged on safety grounds.

The NGOs operating the ships all refute the authorities’ allegations and the legitimacy of the blockade.

One of the many supposed safety issues with the Sea Watch 4, according to the authorities, is that the ship is carrying too many life jackets.

Just days before Tuesday’s rescue operation, Open Arms founder Oscar Camps posted two photographs on social media: one of a small empty wooden boat adrift in the sea and the other of a few items of clothing and belongings found in the water.
 
Above the pictures, Mr Camps wrote: “The horror of finding the remains of so many deaths without witnesses, lives cut short by the current political cowardice.

“That is why we are here, so that these crimes are not hidden in the great gutter of the Mediterranean.”

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported on Tuesday that at least 13 people, including one child, drowned that afternoon when their boat capsized off the Libyan coast.

Today brings the total number of people who have drowned in the central Mediterranean in the month that the civil rescue ships have been detained across Europe to at least 168.

Update:

At 17.48 this evening Mr Camps wrote on Twitter that the Open Arms was heading to its second rescue of the day.

"On board we have 199 people, 111 rescued today, and 5 bodies. Meanwhile, the medical team continues to work tirelessly to stabilize severe cases," he said.