Nearly 400 migrants were rescued Tuesday night through Wednesday off the Italian coast, while the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking with more than 300 rescued migrants on board, seeking a safe haven since Sunday, was allowed to dock in Sicily.
According to a statement from the Italian Coast Guard, 396 people aboard a fishing boat near the port of Pozzalo in Sicily were rescued overnight.
“Bad weather and sea conditions have made rescue operations very complicated,” the coast guard said in a statement.
Video footage shows the fishing boat sinking in the waves and the migrants being transported in two tugs that assisted in the rescue operations.
At the same time, the Ocean Viking, managed by the NGO SOS Méditerranée and transporting 306 migrants it had rescued to other companies, received the green light to dock in Sicily.
“Indescribable relief on the Ocean Viking,” ko stressed in a twitter post. The ship was allowed to dock in the port of Augusta, off the east coast of Sicily.
Earlier, Claire Jusat, the ship’s communications officer, appealed for help, stressing that some of the survivors had been at sea for more than a week and that nine children were among them.
“We just went through a storm with more than two meters of waves, it is raining, the deck is full of water, last night the survivors were soaked, frozen, we must be able to disembark as soon as possible, it is the duty of our states,” he said. Jusat.
Ocean Viking had rescued migrants in four different operations. From Sunday he was looking for a port to dock.
More than 57,000 migrants have landed in Italy since the beginning of the year, just over 30,000 in the same period in 2020, according to the Interior Ministry.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 22,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since 2014 trying to reach Europe, including more than 1,500 since the beginning of this year.
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