Stranded migrants to be taken to Spain
629 MIGRANTS RESCUED OFF LIBYAN COAST, INCLUDING PREGNANT WOMEN, ARE CRAMMED INTO A SINGLE SHIP
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 deteriorated in the region.
A total 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.”
Two Italian boats have been instructed to help the Aquarius take the migrants to Spain, according to aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.
‘People are frightened’
Its doctors are helping treat the migrants, who include seven pregnant women, 11 young children and 123 unaccompanied minors.
The Aquarius had been instructed by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome “to transfer 400 of the 629 refugees and migrants currently on board back to Italian Navy ships which will then head to Valencia to disembark,” MSF Sea tweeted.
The Aquarius itself would then “sail to Valencia to disembark the remaining 229 people,” it added.
According to SOS Mediterranee, the journey from Maltese waters to Valencia would take at least three days.
“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.
Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini tweeted: “Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO.”
He said at a news conference on Monday: “We want to put an end to this human trafficking. So as we raised the issue for the Aquarius we will do so for all other ships.”
Despite his comments, SOS Mediterranee insisted yesterday that it would continue its rescue activities.
But Salvini said his hardline stance was aimed at only foreign NGOs for the moment and an Italian coastguard ship was expected to dock in Sicily in the coming hours carrying some 937 migrants, also rescued off Libya.