The NGO Open Arms's tugboat has docked at the port of Naples and will remain anchored there for Refugee Week. World Refugee Day is Thursday, June 20. The NGO will hold a series of meetings with local residents and associations.
Spanish charities including Proactiva Open Arms received the green light to set sail from the port of Barcelona on Wednesday. Instead of returning to the central Mediterranean to save migrants, the NGOs will deliver aid supplies to migrants on the Greek islands.
Spanish authorities on Monday rescued nearly 500 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in flimsy boats. But they continue to block the Spanish NGO ship Open Arms from carrying out search and rescue work.
NGOs are back at sea to "defend human rights" and ensure migrant search and rescue operations, according to a joint statement by Sea Watch, Proactiva Open Arms and Mediterranea. Their ships have already departed and in the coming days will reach the area off the coast of Libya.
The search and rescue vessel of the Spanish NGO Open Arms has arrived in the Spanish port of Algeciras, in Andalusia, with 87 African migrants aboard who were rescued last week in the Mediterranean. The Spanish government has made it known that the migrants will only receive a 72-hour permit and no special status, but France has said it will accept about 20 of the migrants.
The Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms has filed a complaint, including of involuntary manslaughter, against a cargo ship and the captain of the Libyan coast guard, for failing to help three migrants who were adrift in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Spanish NGO Open Arms said it "can't trust" Italy, due to its recent policies on migration.
An aid group has blamed both Libya's coast guard and Italy's interior minister for the deaths of a woman and child in a stricken raft. Libya and Italy reject the accusations.
The Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms has sent two ships to rescue migrants in distress off the Libyan coastline despite the fact that Italian ports are closed and the EU has called for "non-interference".
Two incidents were reported to have taken place in the Mediterranean on the weekend, involving the Libyan coast guard and NGOs. The search and rescue teams say that the Libyan coast guard is preventing them from saving lives.
An Italian judge on Monday ordered the release of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms' ship that was impounded for taking 218 migrants to Italy. Three members of the organization had been under investigation for human trafficking and criminal association.
A journalist aboard the search and rescue ship of the NGO Proactiva Open Arms says the Libyan Coast Guard threatened rescue workers and migrants with death if the workers didn't turn over rescued migrants to the Libyan authorities. Meanwhile international support is growing for the Italian NGO.