London, August 30: Around 150 migrants aboard a rescue boat funded by British street artist Banksy – Louise Michel - were rescued on Sunday. The migrants were shifted to another rescue ship. The migrants onboard Louise Michel were shifted to the Sea-Watch 4 vessel. Now, there are almost 350 migrants on the  German-flagged Sea-Watch 4 ship. The German ship is urgently looking for a port to disembark.

Louise Michel made a distress call on Friday after it rescued more than 200 people. The Banksy-sponsored ship said that it had become overcrowded and unable to move. According to a report published in Aljazeera, on Saturday, 49 survivors were picked up from the Louise Michel by the Italian coastguard and taken to the island of Lampedusa.  The remaining migrants were transferred to Sea-Watch 4.

Tweet by Louise Michel: 

"We're providing an emergency response where the states are failing and now we're stranded at sea. We are being penalised for filing the gap that the EU governments have left at the world's deadliest maritime border," reported AlJazeera quoting Hannah Wallace Bowman, MSF's field communications manager on board the Sea-Watch 4. Some migrants are reportedly on board since last Saturday.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation, also appealed for help. the MSF Sea, in a tweet said, " Update! More than 350 rescued people on board #SeaWatch4 urgently need a place of safety. Some survivors were rescued over a week ago. #MSF &

@seawatch_intl provided an emergency response where #EU states are failing, abandoning people to drown. Now, we are stranded at sea."

Tweet by MSF Sea:

🔴Update! More than 350 rescued people on board #SeaWatch4 urgently need a place of safety. Some survivors were rescued over a week ago. #MSF & @seawatch_intl provided an emergency response where #EU states are failing, abandoning people to drown.

Now, we are stranded at sea. pic.twitter.com/qB5ZmkwxF9

— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) August 30, 2020

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) took cognisance of the matter. Both the organisations jointly called for the "immediate disembarkation" of all survivors still at sea.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 30, 2020 11:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).