CIVILIAN rescuers reached a refugee boat in the central Mediterranean on Tuesday night that had been adrift for over a week since leaving Lebanon.

The search-and-rescue organisation SOS Humanity announced yesterday morning that the crew of its ship, Humanity 1, had located the boat on Tuesday evening and brought everyone aboard.

The charity confirmed that there were 207 people aboard the boat, not 250 as one of the passengers had estimated when speaking to the activist-run distress hotline organisation Alarm Phone on Monday.

The rescuers also discovered that there had been no casualties, including the three-month-old child Alarm Phone feared was dead.

However, “the situation was extremely serious,” SOS Humanity’s human rights observer Mirka Schafer said yesterday.

“The people on board reported having been at sea for over a week and several days without food or drinking water. Among others, there were pregnant women and many children on the boat.”

No European maritime authority came to the 207’s aid when Alarm Phone alerted them to the distress case in Malta’s search-and-rescue zone on Monday. Fortunately, the Humanity 1 — over 20 hours away from the refugees’ last-known position and already carrying 208 survivors — changed course.

“The crew of the Humanity 1 received no information from the responsible Maltese Rescue Coordination Centre,” SOS Humanity said yesterday.

“Almost half of the survivors on board the Humanity 1 … are under 18 years old, and 113 of them are unaccompanied minors. Many have sustained injuries during their journey.

“The total of 415 people [aboard the Humanity 1] need a place of safety where they can go ashore immediately.”