Two rescue ships carrying 164 migrants in Med seeking safe port

Two rescue ships with 164 migrants on board, includingtwo pregnant women, were seeking a safe harbour on Friday, afterItalian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisted they would not beallowed into Italy.Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms rescued 69 migrantsfrom waters off the Libyan coast overnight to Friday to raise thetotal aboard its vessel to 124, the organization said on Twitter.The migrants showed clear signs of having been subjected to violencein Libya, Open Arms head Oscar Camps said. Among them were twopregnant 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 onboard 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 fromentering Italy's territorial waters.Separately, the German aid organization Sea-Eye said that Italy haddemanded Malta take responsibility for the Alan Kurdi, a rescuevessel operated by the group.It currently has 40 migrants on board and is close to the Italianisland of Lampedusa. Italian coastguard authorities shifted responsibility to Malta, "eventhough the ship lies immediately off Lampedusa," Sea-Eye tweeted onFriday."Malta is more than 20 hours away. An unbearable conflict is beingconducted on the backs of the refugees," Sea-Eye said, adding thatItaly 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 Mediterraneanisland. Salvini had earlier banned the Alan Kurdi - named for a 3-year-oldSyrian refugee who drowned off the Turkish coast in 2015 - fromentering an Italian port, threatening it would be confiscated if itdid so.Meanwhile, the Ocean Viking rescue vessel, operated by SOSMediterranee and Doctors without Borders, was preparing to leave theFrench port of Marseille to sail for Libyan waters. It has capacityfor 200 people. The Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans also reported that theconfiscation of its Mare Jonio ship had been lifted and it wasintending to set off on a new mission.Salvini maintained his hard line, insisting that other EU states takein the migrants, and on Thursday accused the German government of"blackmail."Germany had proposed to take in 30 migrants off an Italian coastguardvessel, the Gregoretti, if Italy in exchange takes the 40 off theAlan Kurdi, Salvini said.However, sources in the German government told dpa that it alsooffered to take in migrants from the Alan Kurdi.  The German Interior Ministry said: "It is important for Germany tosave people from drowning and to avoid ships sitting in front ofEuropean ports for days or weeks before they are allowed to dock."  A spokeswoman for the European Commission said it was mediatingbetween the EU states in search of a solution for the migrants onboard the Alan Kurdi. Some countries had already agreed to acceptmigrants from the ship, the spokeswoman said.  Salvini allowed 131 migrants on board the Gregoretti to disembark onWednesday after reaching a deal with other EU member states.The European Union has yet to come to an arrangement for distributingmigrants, despite repeated attempts to do so.