Ship with ‘60’ docks in Barcelona

A handout picture released by West Sussex County Council on July 4, and taken on July 3, shows a ceremonial parchment manuscript copy

of the American Declaration of Independence, dubbed the Sussex Declaration. (AFP)

BARCELONA, July 4, (Agencies): A ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms docked in the port of Barcelona Wednesday with 60 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast on board, after Italy refused to take them in.

After a four-day crossing of the Mediterranean, the 60 migrants -- 50 men, five women and five minors including three who were unaccompanied, according to the NGO -- were due to be examined by Red Cross workers. They will then be transferred to shelters. They “are doing well given the circumstances, there was no serious medical emergency and they’re happy because we told them the government wanted them to come here,” said Anabel Montes, the NGO’s project manager.

The Open Arms ship arrived in Spain over two weeks after the Aquarius, a French NGO rescue vessel carrying 630 migrants, was given authorisation to dock in the eastern port of Valencia.

Meanwhile, France will grant asylum to around 80 refugees from the Aquarius rescue vessel which was at the centre of a bitter European dispute over migration last month, the country’s asylum office said Tuesday.

French officials interviewed 135 of the mainly African migrants aboard the charity boat that was left adrift in the Mediterranean after being turned away by Italy and Malta before being accepted by Spain.

Of the 135 who were screened in Spain, “around 80 will benefit from France’s protection,” Pascal Brice, head of the Ofpra asylum office said.

France will also grant asylum to 52 people rescued by the German charity boat Lifeline last month, which was also stranded for days last month after picking up migrants in distress off the Libyan coast.

Izzeddin al-Ghalban’s first attempt to reach Europe ended when the boat engine died. The Libyan coast guard thwarted his second. After a third try, the 23-year-old rested on the deck of a Spanish aid group’s rescue ship as it headed toward Barcelona, grateful that he finally made it.

“Libya is hell,” al-Ghalban told The Associated Press on Tuesday aboard the Open Arms, a ship run by charity Proactiva Open Arms.

The young Palestinian from Gaza was one of 60 migrants the crew of the Open Arms rescued Saturday from a rubber boat floating in waters off Libya’s coast, a scenario that’s been repeat-