Over 100 people - including 40 children - are on their way to Italy after being rescued from Malta's rescue waters, search-and-rescue NGO Sea-Eye said on Wednesday.

The crew of the ship SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 106 people from two different boats on Boxing Day.

The NGO said the "distress cases" occurred in the Maltese search-and-rescue zone, south of Lampedusa and the head of mission informed the authorities.

Among the rescued 106 people, 40 are minors. The youngest are aged five and six and are accompanied by their parents.

A 13-year-old boy from Guinea and a 14-year-old boy from Mali fled alone.

The people on both boats said they had fled towards Europe via Tunisia on Tuesday night. They had fled Eritrea, Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, Gambia and Senegal, among others. 

"The Maltese Rescue Coordination Centre responsible did not respond. The Italian Rescue Coordination Centre assigned the Sea-Eye 4 to the Italian port of Brindisi to disembark the rescued people. The passage will take around three days," the organisation said in a statement, adding that the SEA-EYE 4's head of mission expects the ship to arrive in Brindisi on Friday afternoon. 

This was the Sea-Eye's fifth mission of the year, with the organisation planning to carry out nine missions in the new year. In the statement, the organisation appealed for donations.

"We have a ship ready to go and a strong team on land and at sea. Now it's just a matter of being able to finance all the missions in the forthcoming year.

"We are aware of the increasing political headwinds. However, we will not give up, we will keep relying on the solidarity of our supporters and together we will continue to fight for every single human life," Sea-Eye chair Gorden Isler said.

More information here.