More than 400 refugees from Libya were on board three German Navy ships headed from Tunisia toward Egypt early Sunday morning, dpa reported.
Mission command in Potsdam said that the ships - the frigates Brandenburg and Rheinland-Pfalz as well as the supply ship Berlin - had departed from Tunisia's port of Gabes and set course for Egypt's port of Alexandria.
All told, they were carrying 412 Egyptian guest workers who had fled the growing conflict in Libya. The journey across the Mediterranean was expected to take 67 hours.
The German deployment is part of an international rescue effort to help Tunisia deal with tens of thousands of refugees from its neighbouring Libya.