European nations take in migrants rescued at sea

France, Germany and Italy yesterday reached an agreement to take in nearly 200 migrants after they were forced to stay at sea, some for 11 days, while the rescue ships searched for a safe port.

The decision came after aid agencies urged European countries to agree a co-ordinated disembarkation process for humanitarian ships operating in the Mediterranean.

One hundred and four survivors were “left in limbo on the deck of a rescue ship” after being saved off the Libyan coast on October 18 by the Ocean

Viking, which is chartered by

SOS Mediterranee in partnership with Medecins Sans Frontieres. About 50 patients were treated for sea sickness and several for respiratory infections.

Rescue boat Alan Kurdi, operated by German group Sea Eye, was also looking for a safe port. It saved 90 migrants who got into difficulty in the Mediterranean on Saturday and had warning shots fired towards it by masked Libyan gunmen on boats.

“We are relived and appreciate that France, Germany and Italy have finally found a solution,” MSF’s head of mission Michael Fark said.

But he expressed his frustration that offers for help were not forthcoming from more European states.

“In the past four months, several European leaders met on three occasions, showing a will to establish a temporary disembarkation and distribution mechanism for people rescued in the Central Mediterranean,” said Louise Guillaumat, deputy director of SOS Mediterranee’s operations.

She was referring to plans discussed by some EU states to run a pilot project for six months to develop a disembarkation system respecting international law.

Ms Guilaumat said there could not be a return to an “ad hoc” approach used in the past 16 months.