- Tweeter
republish
More than 80 migrants, mainly Sudanese men and adolescents, were rescued Saturday morning August 10 by the Ocean Viking off Libyan waters, according to a first count of Doctors Without Borders. This is the second rescue operation conducted in 24 hours by this humanitarian ship chartered by the NGOs SOS Mediterranean and Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Friday's rescue had already recovered 85 people including five women and four children.
The boat, a white rubber dinghy, could be spotted by the presence of a plane overflight repeated, said the head of mission of MSF, Jay Berger. " But the plane never tried to communicate with us, " he said. It was up to the north to follow the trajectory of the plane that the Ocean Viking was able to rescue the boat. European forces planes regularly patrol over the central Mediterranean to spot boats leaving the Libyan coast, benefiting at this time from mild weather conditions.
🔴 BREAKING @MSF_Sea & @SOSMedIntl have just completed their 2nd rescue in less than 24 hours. More than 80 people were rescued from a distressed inflatable boat in # Central Mediterranean this morning. They are now safe aboard # OceanViking. More info coming pic.twitter.com/CnrE1cgmyJ
SOS MEDITERRANEE France (@SOSMedFrance) August 10, 2019►Also read: the humanitarian ship "Ocean Viking" rescued 85 migrants in the Mediterranean
About 170 people, all from sub-Saharan Africa, are currently on board the humanitarian ship that left Marseille last Sunday. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who on Thursday blasted the populist coalition in Italy and is already campaigning for a likely election in the autumn, immediately sent a letter to the Norwegian government, including the ship Ocean Viking flies the flag. " Italy is not legally bound, nor willing to host unidentified illegal immigrants, aboard the Ocean Viking, " he wrote.
Oslo did not react immediately, but Norway's Minister of Justice and Immigration Jøran Kallmyr (populist right) said on public television that migrants must be " brought back to Africa, Tunisia or in Libya ".
Malta accepts 39 migrants but not the 121 of the Open Arms ship
The Maltese government announced Saturday that it will accept 39 migrants rescued overnight by the Open Arms ship of the Spanish NGO Proactiva, but has refused the 121 others on board for nine days, attracting a refusal from the NGO Spanish who wants to land them all.
Malta said, in a statement, that it had " proposed to transfer the 39 migrants aboard a ship of the military forces, and land them on Maltese soil as they were recovered in the Maltese relief area of competence and coordinated by the RCC Emergency Center ". " But, Open Arms refuses this solution and insists that Malta welcomes 121 other migrants intercepted in an area that neither Malta nor the competent coordinating authority is responsible, " said the Maltese government.
Earlier, Open Arms denounced Malta's attitude, in a tweet in Spanish, saying it had caused tension on the ship of Proactiva, which is treading off the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to Procativa's founder, Oscar Camps, Malta's decision " The #Malta position that recently rescued people are landed before those who have been on board for 9 days poses coexistence problems that seriously affect the safety of the ship ."
The #Malta posición that the newly rescued sean desembarcados antes de los que llevan 9 días a bordo planta problemas de convivencia q afectan gravidadte to the seguridad del buque. Valoradas todas las circunstancias, por razones de estricta seguridad, no podemos aceptar POR AHORA pic.twitter.com/RRsF6OmNhy
Open Arms (@openarms_fund) August 10, 2019On Friday morning, American actor Richard Gere came to support the ship. He had boarded the boat to meet the crew and the migrants, some thirty of whom were minors.