Italian authorities have assigned NGO rescue vessels Sea-Watch 3 and the Open Arms with almost 240 rescued migrants on board the ports of Taranto and Messina, respectively. Four EU countries agreed to receive the migrants, yet a binding quota system for the distribution of migrants rescued at sea is still not in place.
The Spanish humanitarian organization Proactiva Open Arms rescued 73 migrants from a distressed boat in the Mediterranean early Thursday morning. Some of the migrants were severely injured, the NGO said.
US actor Richard Gere on Monday was honored by the Italian city of Florence for his humanitarian work in favor of migrants and human rights.
The Spanish non-profit organization Proactiva Open Arms has rescued 44 people from a wooden boat in the Mediterranean. The chief of mission of the rescue boat says Malta told him not to help the group, which included a young child and a baby.
The Spanish maritime rescue service on Monday rescued almost 200 migrants who tried to get to Spain from North Africa. This brings the total number of people rescued in the Western Mediterranean to nearly 400 in less than one week.
More than 150 migrants crossed the border fence separating the Spanish overseas enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Friday. It was the biggest attempt to cross the heavily guarded barrier in a year.
The Spanish maritime rescue service has rescued more than 200 migrants from Mediterranean waters in the past 24 hours. The rescue comes at the same time as Spain is getting ready to welcome 15 migrants it picked up from Sicily using a naval warship.
18-year-old Feven, a migrant from Eritrea, was rescued at sea by the Spanish migrant aid organization Proactiva Open Arms. After she disembarked on the island of Lampedusa, she recounted the horrors of her journey to the UNHCR.
The Italian Interior Ministry said the European Commission is planning to distribute the 80 migrants rescued by NGO rescue vessel Open Arms. The migrants, currently on the islands of Sicily and Lampedusa, will be received by EU countries that have expressed willingness to take them in. Meanwhile, an Italian polician said the situation on Lampedusa is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
The over 80 migrants who disembarked on Lampedusa are once again in limbo. EU states have not sorted out yet how they will be relocated. One week ago, six countries had declared their general willingness to take the migrants in.
Italy has allowed over 80 migrants who have been stranded on a Spanish migrant rescue vessel off the coast of Lampedusa to disembark. Prosecutors said the decision was due to the "difficult" situation on board.
Embattled Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is not a fan of private migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean, to say the least. Since he took office in mid-2018, there have been about a dozen prominent stand-offs between Salvini and rescue ships.