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Alan Kurdi rescue ship picks up another 44 migrants
VALLETTA, July 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The migrant rescue boat Alan Kurdi has
saved another 44 people, including women and infants from their stricken
vessel in the Mediterranean, its operator German charity Sea-Eye said on
Tuesday.
Malta has agreed to take in those rescued and is sending a vessel to pick
them up, the charity said in a statement.
Malta’s coastguard confirmed that it would transfer the migrants to one of
its vessels in international waters. Malta’s government did not say whether a
deal had been reached for the migrants’ final destination.
The Alan Kurdi last week rescued 65 shipwrecked migrants attempting the
perilous journey from North Africa, handing them over to Malta after hardline
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini closed Italy’s ports to the vessel.
Sea-Eye said it was alerted to the plight of the latest migrants off the
Libyan coast by Tunisian fishermen and a civilian search plane.
The rescued migrants said they had left Zuwara in Libya early Saturday.
Their wooden boat was in Malta’s search and rescue area so Maltese
authorities asked a nearby freighter to coordinate the rescue, which told
Sea-Eye to take the migrants on board.
“Forty-four people, including four women and three children,” were brought
aboard the Alan Kurdi, Sea-Eye said.
The children are 15 months, three and five years old. The people come from
Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Guinea, it said.
“A 15-month-old baby should never have to be in such a life-threatening
situation,” said Sea-Eye spokeswoman Carlotta Weibl.
– Italy mulling warship patrols –
The 65 migrants the Alan Kurdi handed over to Maltese authorities on
Sunday have already been sent on to other European Union countries.
An Italian customs vessel on Tuesday separately brought 47 rescued
migrants into Sicily’s Pozzallo port, Italian media reported.
The migrants had been headed to Lampedusa, an Italian island between
Sicily and Libya, but there was no space for them there as hundreds of
migrants continue to arrive by their own means or are rescued by authorities.
Salvini has vowed to close Italian ports to charity rescue ships, which he
accuses of helping people smugglers.
Interior ministry figures showed that 395 migrants have arrived in Italy
since the end of June.
Italian media reported that this year barely one in 10 migrants and asylum
seekers has been brought into Italy by charity vessels — the vast majority
arrived by other means.
Salvini on Monday said he wanted to deploy military vessels to stop
migrant vessels arriving.
Half of the migrants landed in Pozzallo are Tunisian, Italian media
reported. Salvini has written to the Tunisian authorities urging a new
bilateral deal on handling migrants, including using ferries to repatriate
them.
– Captains risk Italian ire –
Italy and Malta have repeatedly criticised Europe’s “case-by-case”
approach to migrant rescues, which means shipwreck victims spend days or
weeks at sea while countries try to agree where they should go.
The Alan Kurdi, which had been banned from entering Maltese and Italian
waters, is the third rescue vessel in a week to make headlines.
Some 41 people were finally allowed to step off migrant rescue charity
Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex, which arrived at the port on Saturday in
an overnight operation that saw the ship seized by authorities.
The boat’s captain Tommaso Stella is being investigated for allegedly
aiding illegal immigration.
Salvini last month issued a decree that would impose fines of up to 50,000
euros ($57,000) for the captain, owner and operator of a vessel “entering
Italian territorial waters without authorisation”.
Authorities on Lampedusa in late June seized a rescue ship belonging to
German aid group Sea-Watch, which had forced its way into port with dozens of
rescued migrants on board, and arrested its captain, Carola Rackete.
An Italian judge subsequently ordered her freed, saying she had been
acting to save lives, a decision which sparked Salvini’s ire but may have
encouraged the Alex crew.
Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that killed
dictator Moamer Kadhafi, has long been a major transit route for migrants,
especially from sub-Saharan Africa, desperate to reach Europe.
BSS/AFP/RY/1845 hrs