The Ocean Viking, which was waiting for a safe port to land 82 migrants rescued at sea, was authorized by Italy to dock on the island of Lampedusa, said Saturday SOS Mediterranean chartered this humanitarian vessel. "The Ocean Viking has just received instruction from the Rome Sea Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) to go to Lampedusa (Italy), a safe place designated to disembark the 82 survivors rescued in two operations," he said. the NGO on Twitter.
The green light from Rome came shortly after the inauguration of Giuseppe Conte's new government, out of which Matteo Salvini, the outgoing Minister of the Interior, who had fiercely opposed the landing of humanitarian ships on the Italian coast, was absent.
Distributed in five countries including France
According to details from the French Ministry of the Interior, the 82 migrants who will land in Lampedusa will then be divided into five European countries - Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg - under an ad hoc agreement. "We now have to agree on a real European temporary mechanism," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told Twitter.
The Ocean Viking, which succeeded Aquarius and was on its second mission in the Mediterranean, had been sailing for nearly two weeks between Italy and Malta waiting for a safe port to disembark the migrants on board. Among them, Médecins sans Frontières, which also operates this ship, has identified 58 men, 6 women, 17 minors and a child of 1 year. At the end of its first expedition at the end of August, the Ocean Viking had collected 356 migrants, who were able to disembark in Malta. France is committed to collect 150, almost half.