Aid group claims ships won’t save Mediterranean migrants

ROME — Migrants in distress at sea told rescuers that several ships passed them by without offering assistance, a European aid group said Sunday while seeking safe harbour for a rescue vessel with 141 migrants aboard.

SOS Mediterranee said in a statement that due to the recent refusal of Italy and Malta to let rescue vessels dock, ships might now be unwilling to get involved, fearing they will be stranded with migrants aboard and denied a port to disembark them.

Friday the group’s chartered ship Aquarius, which it operates in partnership with Doctors Without Borders, rescued 141 people in waters off Libya. Of them 25 were found adrift on a small wooden boat with no motor and was believed to have been at sea for about 35 hours, the group said. The other 116 people, including 67 unaccompanied minors, were rescued later that day.

Nearly three-quarters of those rescued originate from Somalia and Eritrea. Many migrants recounted how they were “held in inhumane conditions in Libya,” where human traffickers are based, the aid group aid.

It added Libya’s rescue coordination authorities wouldn’t provide the Aquarius with “a place of safety” and asked it to request safe harbour in another country. The Aquarius was sailing north Sunday seeking permission to dock elsewhere.

Aboard is Doctors Without Borders project co-ordinator, Aloys Vimard.