(Rome) Nearly 400 migrants were rescued overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday near the Italian coast while more than 300 others, aboard a humanitarian ship, were waiting to be able to dock.
According to a statement from the Italian Coast Guard, 396 people who were aboard a silted fishing boat not far from the port of Pozzallo, in Sicily, were rescued overnight.
“The worsening weather and sea conditions made the rescue operations quite complicated,” the coast guard said in a statement.
At the same time, the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, managed by the NGO SOS Méditerranée and currently in the Sicily Canal, was still looking for a port to dock with the more than 300 people it rescued.
“I am speaking to you from the deck of the Ocean Viking where I am with 306 survivors, some of them more than a week ago, there are nine young children among these survivors”, declared in a video sent to AFP Claire Juchat, communications officer on board the ship.
“We have just passed through a storm with more than two meters of waves, it is raining, the bridge is wet, last night the survivors were soaked, frozen, we must be able to disembark as quickly as possible, it is a duty on our part States, ”continued Mr.me Juchat.
“We accomplished ours by rescuing these people from boats in distress during four rescues, now it’s up to the authorities to do their job, by giving us a safe place as quickly as possible”, she concluded. .
The Ocean Viking has been looking for a safe port since Sunday to dock with the rescued migrants.
More than 57,000 migrants have landed in Italy since the start of the year, up from just over 30,000 during the same period in 2020, according to data from the Interior Ministry.