Excitement and dread.
The mix of emotions as the Ocean Viking leaves the French port of Marseille for open seas is difficult to gauge. But while most cheered as the boat headed out of port, the reality of what lay ahead remained very present.
Beyond the horizon, thousands of people are fleeing a Libya that has left them exposed to horrors difficult to fully comprehend. Testimonies of people willing to die at sea, rather than return, are not uncommon.
The mission ahead will...
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Nikolaj Nielsen, an EUobserver journalist, is embedded on the Ocean Viking for the coming weeks, reporting exclusively from the boat on the Mediterranean migration route.