Bos-Hestia

On Monday Oct. 23, Italian police boarded the migrant search and rescue vessel Vos Hestia in the port of Catania, Sicily to search for evidence related to "alleged illicit conduct committed by third parties." The Vos Hestia's charterer, the NGO Save the Children, emphasized in a statement that the search is solely targeting "material for crimes that currently do not concern the work of our organization."

The "Vos Hestia" entered the port of Trapani on Nov 24, 2016, after having rescued more than 400 people in the Mediterranean Sea, including about 100 children and several pregnant women. The vast majority of the rescued children traveled alone. The rescue carried out by the NGO's ship was carried out in the dark at dawn on Nov 22, following a call from the Italian Coast Guard, which discovered a wooden boat full of people off the coast of North Africa. The operation was carried out with two other rescue ships. The organisation "Save the Children" explained that its team transferred all refugees and migrants aboard the ship in an operation that lasted about three hours. The medical team on board treated several people requiring immediate attention, while experts in child protection provided psychosocial support to all children.