Two rescue ships with 164 migrants on board, including
two pregnant women, were seeking a safe harbour on Friday, after
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisted they would not be
allowed into Italy.
Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms rescued 69 migrants
from waters off the Libyan coast overnight to Friday to raise the
total aboard its vessel to 124, the organization said on Twitter.
The migrants showed clear signs of having been subjected to violence
in Libya, Open Arms head Oscar Camps said. Among them were two
pregnant women, one of whom went into labour, and 9-month-old twins.
Most are from Eritrea.
The ship's captain, Marc Reig, told a Spanish television crew on
board that he had appealed to the relevant authorities in Libya,
Malta and Italy without receiving a response.
Late Thursday, Salvini banned the Spanish-flagged vessel from
entering Italy's territorial waters.
Separately, the German aid organization Sea-Eye said that Italy had
demanded Malta take responsibility for the Alan Kurdi, a rescue
vessel operated by the group.
It currently has 40 migrants on board and is close to the Italian
island of Lampedusa.
Italian coastguard authorities shifted responsibility to Malta, "even
though the ship lies immediately off Lampedusa," Sea-Eye tweeted on
Friday.
"Malta is more than 20 hours away. An unbearable conflict is being
conducted on the backs of the refugees," Sea-Eye said, adding that
Italy had refused to take even children or pregnant women to port.
A small boy with a bullet wound would now be transferred to Malta,
Sea-Eye said. The ship would also now sail to the Mediterranean
island.
Salvini had earlier banned the Alan Kurdi - named for a 3-year-old
Syrian refugee who drowned off the Turkish coast in 2015 - from
entering an Italian port, threatening it would be confiscated if it
did so.
Meanwhile, the Ocean Viking rescue vessel, operated by SOS
Mediterranee and Doctors without Borders, was preparing to leave the
French port of Marseille to sail for Libyan waters. It has capacity
for 200 people.
The Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans also reported that the
confiscation of its Mare Jonio ship had been lifted and it was
intending to set off on a new mission.
Salvini maintained his hard line, insisting that other EU states take
in the migrants, and on Thursday accused the German government of
"blackmail."
Germany had proposed to take in 30 migrants off an Italian coastguard
vessel, the Gregoretti, if Italy in exchange takes the 40 off the
Alan Kurdi, Salvini said.
However, sources in the German government told dpa that it also
offered to take in migrants from the Alan Kurdi.
The German Interior Ministry said: "It is important for Germany to
save people from drowning and to avoid ships sitting in front of
European ports for days or weeks before they are allowed to dock."
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it was mediating
between the EU states in search of a solution for the migrants on
board the Alan Kurdi. Some countries had already agreed to accept
migrants from the ship, the spokeswoman said.
Salvini allowed 131 migrants on board the Gregoretti to disembark on
Wednesday after reaching a deal with other EU member states.
The European Union has yet to come to an arrangement for distributing
migrants, despite repeated attempts to do so.
A rescued migrant disembarks from Italian coastguard ship Gregoretti in Augusta, Italy. Reuters