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Rescued migrants in limbo as Salvini bans second charity ship
ROME, Aug 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – An Open Arms charity ship was seeking a safe
port Friday with 124 rescued migrants on board after finding itself banned
from entering Italian territorial waters.
The vessel, run by a Spanish-run NGO, joined the German Alan Kurdi in the
latest stand-off with Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini.
The Proactiva Open Arms group said its vessel had plucked 69 migrants and
asylum seekers — including two children — from a boat in trouble overnight
Thursday.
They included people bearing “terrible signs of violence” and a nine-month
pregnant woman having contractions, it said.
Open Arms on Thursday had already rescued 55 people from a sinking vessel,
including two babies and some 15 women.
As they crowded together on deck under the shade of tarpaulins, the charity
ship headed north but its destination was unclear.
Salvini has signed an order prohibiting the ship from entering Italian
waters.
He has done the same for the Alan Kurdi, which is run by German NGO Sea-Eye
and has 40 rescued migrants on board.
After initially heading to waters off the southern Italian island of
Lampedusa, the ship said Friday it had changed course for Malta.
Those on the Alan Kurdi ship, rescued Wednesday off Libya, hail from West
Africa and include a pregnant woman, three young children and a man with
gunshot wounds, according to Sea-Eye.
All migrants rescued by Open Arms have been disembarked in Spain since the
middle of last year.
But the Spanish authorities have forbidden the ship to return to the waters
off Libya, saying it would face a fine of between up to 900,000 euros,
according to the charity.
During its last rotation off Libya in early July, the Alan Kurdi rescued
109 migrants and disembarked them in Malta.
Salvini has insisted since taking up the interior ministry post in June
2018 that rescued migrants can only land in Italy if an agreement is already
in place with other European countries to look after them.
BSS/AFP/RY/1710 hrs