As EU heads of state and government gather in Brussels to discuss migration, the Ocean Viking search and rescue vessel is preparing to set sail from the French port of Marseille.
The Norwegian-flagged boat is chartered by SOS Méditerranée, a humanitarian organisation that has rescued close to 33,000 people over the past few years.
Over that same period, EU member states have been unable to muster a coordinated response amid political wrangling over migration and asylum reforms.
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Nikolaj Nielsen, an EUobserver journalist, will be embedded on the Ocean Viking for the coming weeks, reporting exclusively from the boat on the Mediterranean migration route.