Children rescued in the Mediterranean must be allowed to disembark in a safe haven, charities said on Saturday as the dispute with Italy over migrant arrivals intensified.
There are four humanitarian ships carrying rescued migrants that are currently requesting permission to safely dock in Italy as conditions at sea worsen with bad weather.
“We have a lot of babies on board, as well as women with children. We urgently need to be assigned a port,” Hermine Poschmann of the German aid organization Mission Lifeline, which operates the rescue ship Rise Above, told AFP.
Italy’s new far-right government, which was sworn in last month, has vowed to crack down on boat migrants fleeing North Africa for Europe.
The German ship Rise Above, which rescued 95 people in three operations on Thursday, is carrying 42 minors, including eight babies, the smallest of whom are just seven and 10 months old.
“The situation will continue to worsen due to the enormous psychological stress on the people on board,” said operations manager Clemens Ledwa.
Together, the four ships – Rise Above, Humanity 1, Ocean Viking and Geo Barents – are carrying over 1,000 people rescued in the Mediterranean.
Italy said on Friday it would allow Humanity 1, run by German charity SOS Humanity and carrying 179 migrants, into its national waters so Italian authorities could conduct medical screenings.
– “Undoubtedly illegal” –
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy will accept minors and women who are pregnant or have young children, but the ship must then “remove” the remaining migrants from Italian territorial waters.
But SOS Humanity’s Lukas Kaldenhoff said the charity had received “no communication whatsoever from the Italian authorities” about health checks, nor had it been assigned a port.
Humanity 1 entered Italian waters overnight to seek shelter.
“More than 100 of the 179 people on board are minors, including a seven-month-old baby,” Kaldenhoff told AFP.
Mirka Schafer, the charity’s advocacy officer, said in a statement that the government’s decision to only take in some people was “undoubtedly illegal”.
“The survivors have fled Libya, where they have been subjected to human rights abuses such as torture. As refugees, they are clearly in a vulnerable state, some of them visibly traumatized.
“The rescued must be allowed to go ashore immediately, where their medical and psychological care is guaranteed and they can exercise their right to international protection,” she added.
The ship was off the coast of Catania, Sicily on Saturday, as was Rise Above, which Poschmann said had also sought shelter.
The 25 meter long ship “is a small, fast responder, not made for long downtimes,” said Poschmann.
The ship usually transfers the rescued to the larger charity ships, but they have no room for them.
A photographer on the Ocean Viking, operated by SOS Mediteranee, told AFP “sea conditions are deteriorating and we are expecting more rain”.
“Those on board are not healthy because they are seasick, including children,” he said, adding that among the 234 migrants, 57 were minors.
The Geo Barrents, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières and currently carrying 572 rescued people, said on Saturday they also entered Italian waters to seek shelter “after requesting and receiving permission from the authorities”.
“We have been waiting for a safe landing site for more than ten days,” said Mission Director Juan Matias Gil.
