The charity is believed to have saved 40,000 lives since 2015.
ADVERTISEMENTA charity that’s been dedicated to saving those in peril on the sea since 2015 has won a 2023 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed an alternative Nobel Prize.
SOS Méditerranée has saved the lives of 40,000 migrants attempting the perilous crossing from north Africa to southern Europe since it was founded by Sophie Beau and Klaus Vogel.
The charity, which has offices in Geneva, Marseille, Berlin and Milan, conducts search and rescue operations from its ship Ocean Viking.
The Right Livelihood Awards are presented in Stockholm, typically a week before the official Nobel Prizes are handed out.
This year 170 candidates from 68 countries were put forward. Among this year's recipients were Eunice Brookman-Amissah, a Ghanaian doctor; Mother Nature Cambodia, a prominent youth-led environmental rights organisation in Cambodia; and Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan environmental activist.
Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of Right Livelihood, said: “Right Livelihood exists to nurture human courage. We honour some of the world's leading change-makers who dare to build a world based on the principles of peace, justice and sustainability, and we encourage everyone to realise their own important roles in creating better societies.”