Following Italy's permission to let cargo ship Maersk Etienne disembark 27 rescued migrants, UN refugee agency UNHCR has launched a new appeal for the redistribution of migrants at a European level. The migrants had been stranded at sea for 39 days before being allowed to step ashore in Sicily on September 12.
The NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans has announced that it is almost ready to resume search-and-rescue operations. They also called on European governments to do more to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
While migrant landings in Italy in the first half of 2020 have nearly tripled compared to the first semester of 2019, quarantine rules against COVID-19 for migrants rescued at sea have taken center stage. A controversy was sparked by the fact that 67 people who were rescued by Italian vessel Mare Jonio were allowed to disembark in Pozzallo, Sicily, on June 20 while 211 migrants rescued a day later by the German Sea-Watch vessel were transferred to another ship to be quarantined.
Several people have died following another shipwreck along the Libyan coast over the weekend. The incident took place near the capital, Tripoli. The exact number of victims is so far unknown; however, according to initial reports, there were three bodies washed up on the beach near the town of Al-Zawiya, about 50 kilometers west of Tripoli.
Private migrant rescue vessels Sea-Watch 3 and Mare Jonio over the weekend disembarked close to 300 migrants on the Italian island of Sicily. The arrivals in Italy were the first of their kind since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The German-run rescue organization Sea-Watch has picked up 165 migrants from rubber dinghies off the coast of Libya on Wednesday. Several migrants including women and children were in need of immediate medical attention, the NGO said.
An Italian court has ordered the seized sailboat Alex Mediterranea to be released. The ship of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans was confiscated last July after it had rescued 59 people in the Mediterranean.
The mayor of the Sicilian city of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, on Monday granted honorary citizenship to the crews of three boats involved in rescuing human lives in the Mediterranean Sea.
After being impounded in Sicily's Licata port on September 3, the Court of Palermo on Tuesday ordered the release of the migrant rescue vessel Mare Jonio. The ship is run by the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, which has said that it will soon return to sea to save the lives of more migrants.
The NGO that operates the Mare Jonio has filed a complaint against the Italian government over its treatment of the rescue ship. They say rescued migrants and crew were subjected to "seven days of violations, negligence and abuse."