Migrants’ plight solved by Spain

ITALY FORCED TO HELP AQUARIUS

Hundreds of migrants stranded for days on an aid ship in the Mediterranean will be taken to Spain with the help of two Italian boats, their rescuers said yesterday, as weather conditions deteriorate in the region.

A total of 629 migrants – including pregnant women and scores of children – are currently crammed on to the Aquarius ship after being rescued off the Libyan coast on Saturday and Sunday.

With food and drink running short, their plight could last another three or four more days before they are finally able to land in Spain, said the French charity SOS Mediterranee which operates the ship.

The migrants have been at the heart of a standoff between Malta and Italy after both countries refused to allow the Aquarius to dock.

Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stepped in, offering the boat safe harbour in the eastern port city of Valencia. He said there was a moral “obligation to help to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.”

But the deteriorating weather and the extremely cramped conditions on board the Aquarius – which was built to transport a maximum of 500 – could make that journey to Valencia perilous.

“Weather conditions over the next few days are going to worsen, meaning that we can’t make the journey with everyone here aboard,” Alessandro Porro, an Italian volunteer on board, told Italian broadcaster RAI 3.

Two Italian boats have been instructed to help the Aquarius take the migrants to Spain, according to aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Its doctors are helping treat the migrants, who include seven pregnant women, 11 young children and 123 unaccompanied minors.

“The people are frightened, they’re very fragile, vulnerable and traumatised by their journey at sea, which would last another 48 hours,” tweeted MSF coordinator Aloys Vimard, who is on board the boat.

Both Italy and Malta had come under increasing international pressure to allow the migrant rescue ship to dock, and they continued to argue over who was responsible.

Since Sanchez announced that Spain would accept the boat, several Spanish regions have offered to take in the new arrivals. – AFP