Updated 12pm

Nearly 150 people were rescued from the sea and brought to Malta in less than 24 hours.

The Armed Forces of Malta confirmed that 47 men were brought to Malta at 6pm on Sunday after being rescued from a wooden migrant boat earlier in the day.

Another 95 people, including two women, were brought in on Monday at 9.30am after being rescued throughout the night.

One man was rushed to Mater Dei as soon as they landed, the AFM confirmed.

According to NGO Alarm Phone, the Armed Forces of Malta had been alerted about people on distress on Saturday, when a boat with 40 migrants arrived in the Maltese search-and-rescue waters. 

The NGO said they were rescued by the AFM 16 hours later, while another rescue boat - the Alan Kurdi - rescued people on a separate boat.

Alan Kurdi saves 78 people

German charity Sea-Eye, which owns the Alan Kurdi, said it had rescued 78 migrants off the Libyan coast on Saturday and accused Libyan authorities of harassing rescuers and acting illegally.

A request by the rescue vessel to Malta for a safe port was rejected and it headed to Italy instead.

Alarm Phone meanwhile said that on Sunday the AFM had spotted three boats in distress in international waters or the Libyan SAR and that the Libyan Navy Coast Guard asked Malta for support at 2pm. 

According to Alarm Phone, Malta replied by saying that its Rescue Coordination Centre was engaged in search-and-rescue in Maltese waters, and that two French Navy assets were in the area.

It asked the Libyan Navy to seek help of private shipping in the area.

407 people aboard the Ocean Viking

On Sunday evening, SOS Mediterranee’s humanitarian ship Ocean Viking searched for one of two boats off Libya, while it confirmed that Malta was assuming coordination for another boat in its waters.

It later said that it has rescued 184 people, including women and children from two rubber boats.

Around a 100 were picked up 80 nautical miles off Libya and another 82 in Maltese search-and-rescue waters. 

With five nighttime operations in less than 72 hours, the total survivors it had onboard had reached 407. 

More people in distress

On Monday morning, Alarm Phone reported that it had been alerted to seven boats in distress in the Central Mediterranean, carrying more than 500 people fleeing the Libyan warzone.

Five of these boats were rescued by the SAR NGOs, two by Malta.

"In three days at least 13 boats escaped Libya with 800 people and 720 made it to Europe," it Tweeted.

Security 'deteriorating' in Libya

"Despite the winter, despite the bad weather, and despite the very few boats dedicated to the rescue in the area, boats are still leaving Libya in numbers," Aloys Vimard, MSF's coordinator on board the Ocean Viking, has told AFP.

"The survivors tell us about the deteriorating security situation in Libya where there is active conflict."

MSF had refused an offer to land them at Libya as "it is not a safe place" and were looking for other destinations," he added.

An internationally brokered truce between the UN-recognised Government of National Accord in Tripoli and rival eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar has already broken down.

The Libyan capital's sole functioning airport came under renewed fire Sunday and fresh fighting broke out hours after the UN mission there condemned ongoing violations of an arms embargo.

Since the summer of 2018, the EU has tasked Libya's coastguard with coordinating search and rescue operations in a vast stretch of the Mediterranean beyond their territorial waters.

But the conflict there means that these operations are beyond them, according to SOS Mediterranee.

In 2019, the International Organization of Migrants recorded 1,283 deaths in the Mediterranean, the deadliest route for migrants attempting the perilous crossing from North Africa to Italy.

Over the past five years, at last 19,164 migrants have died there.

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