A German rescue ship, the Alan Kurdi, took 32 migrants on board from their vessel in the Mediterranean late on Thursday, including 10 children and a pregnant woman.
The crew received an emergency call on Thursday night and reached the coordinates of the rubber migrant boat off the Libyan coast two hours later.
All of those rescued reported that they were Libyan citizens.
“How safe can Libya be if the Libyans themselves and their families are putting their lives in danger at sea in order to leave the country quickly?” said Gorden Isler, the chairman of the charity Sea-Eye which operates the vessel.
The Alan Kurdi has set course for the Italian island of Lampedusa, Sea-Eye said, adding that a storm was approaching.
The ship last brought refugees from the Mediterranean to Italy in early December.
The ship is named after a 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015 while his family was trying to reach Europe.
