German boat, Sea-Eye rescues 44 additional migrants from Mediterranean

A German rescue boat belonging to a non-governmental organisation, Sea-Eye has picked up 44 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, in a joint operation with Maltese authorities.

Sea-Eye tweeted the report Monday.

According to the Sea-Eye, the migrants were spotted on a wooden boat by private search plane Colibri before being taken on to the Alan Kurdi vessel.

“A ship of the Maltese Navy is now on its way to take the people from the #AlanKurdi and bring them to land,” it tweeted.

There had been no confirmation of this from Malta.

On Sunday Malta agreed to allow 65 migrants saved by Sea-Eye to land, after which the Alan Kurdi returned to its area of operations. Italy had refused the ship entry.

Recent private-rescue operations have frequently ended in long stand-offs or in the seizure of rescue ships.

The case of Carola Rackete, captain of the ship Sea-Watch 3, recently became high profile.

Rackete took 40 migrants to the island of Lampedusa after more than two weeks at sea, breaching Italian orders not to enter the port.

She is under criminal investigation in Italy.