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Rescue boat set to arrive in Spain with over 300 migrants
SAN ROQUE, Spain, Dec 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A Spanish charity rescue boat
is due to arrive in a southern Spanish port Friday morning carrying more than
300 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya a week ago.
The Open Arms is scheduled to dock in the port of Crinavis, in San Roque,
just across from Gibraltar near the city of Algeciras, at 8:00 am (0700 GMT).
Proactiva Open Arms, the Spanish charity which runs the vessel, tweeted the
details on Thursday.
Red Cross workers will be on hand to provide food, clothes and medical
assistance to the 310 migrants on board, including people from Somalia,
Nigeria and Mali.
Police will identify them before moving them to shelters.
The charity operates in the sea between Libya and southern Europe, coming
to the aid migrants who get into difficulties during the crossing from
northern Africa.
It rescued the migrants, including pregnant women, children and babies, on
December 21 from three vessels.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government on Saturday authorised
the ship to dock in Spain after Italy and Malta both refused it access.
Libya, France and Tunisia did not respond to Proactiva Open Arms’ requests
for permission to dock, Madrid said.
On Saturday, a newborn baby and his mother were helicoptered from the boat
to Malta, while a 14-year-old suffering from a serious skin infection was
taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
– Christmas on board –
Photos and videos posted by the charity showed the rest of the rescued
migrants marking Christmas at sea listening to music and singing. Some
children wore red Santa hats as they huddled together on the small rescue
ship.
Another ship operated by Proactiva Open Arms, the Astral, on Monday
delivered blankets, medicine and food to the Open Arms.
The Open Arms resumed its patrols of the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast
in late November, along with two other boats run by migrant aid groups.
In August it had suspended its missions, accusing governments, and Italian
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini by name, of “criminalising” migrant rescue
charities.
Salvini has denied the groups access to Italy’s ports, accusing them of
acting as a “taxi service” for migrants. Malta too has been increasingly
unwilling to host rescue vessels.
“Your rhetoric and your message will, like everything in this life, end,”
Proactiva Open Arms’ founder Oscar Camps told Salvini on Twitter earlier this
week.
“But you should know that in a few decades your descendants will be ashamed
of what you do and say.”
– Most deadly route –
Friday’s docking will be the first time since August that Spain has allowed
a charity rescue ship to dock and unload migrants in the country.
Sanchez made international headlines shortly after he arrived in power in
June by helping a French charity rescue ship, the Aquarius.
He cleared it to dock in the eastern port of Valencia with over 600
migrants on board, after it had been turned away by Italy and Malta, as
tensions mounted in Europe over migration policy.
Madrid then allowed the Open Arms to dock three times in July and August
but then refused to let the Aquarius back a second time.
Instead, they negotiated the distribution of the migrants it had rescued
among several European Union member states.
More than 1,300 migrants have perished trying to reach Italy or Malta since
the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for
Migration (IOM).
That makes this stretch of the Mediterranean the most deadly for migrants
attempting the crossing to Europe.
Spain meanwhile has become Europe’s main entry point for migrants this
year, overtaking Greece and Italy.
More 56,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea this year, and 769 have
died trying, according to the IOM.
BSS/AFP/GMR/ 0820 hrs