The 87 people were rescued from an inflatable raft which was floating directionless with a broken motor in the open sea on August 2, Open Arms said.
Those saved included 84 from the Sudan, a Syrian, an Egyptian and a Gambian. There were 12 children included in those saved, the group said.
“We came across the raft where the people were in a very bad state and very afraid that we were a Libyan boat and we planned to return them to Libya,” Open Arms mission head Ricardo Gatti said during a news conference in Thursday.
The charity says that migrants they have helped have said they fear if they were returned to Libya they could face imprisonment and torture and many have said they would rather die than be returned.
In Spain, they will be processed before being granted refuge in Europe or they will be deported back to where they came from.
Irregular immigration across the Mediterranean has fallen dramatically, with about 60,000 people making it to Europe across the…
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