The Sea-Eye rescue ship Alan Kurdi is anchored off the coast of Malta with over 60 refugees on board. The vessel has been forbidden to dock. Sea-Eye spokesperson Carlotta Weibl spoke with DW about the situation.
Supplies on board the migrant rescue ship 'Alan Kurdi' are running low, the non-government organization Sea Eye says. Six days after the rescue of 64 migrants off the Libyan coast, food and drinking water has nearly run out. Malta and Italy continue to refuse the ship permission to dock.
Many of the 49 people rescued in December by the Sea Watch and Sea Eye ships are engaged in a hunger strike, the platform Mediterranea Saving Humans reports. The migrants have been in a Malta center for two months and are protesting "against the de facto detention that they are illegally subjected to."
The photograph of three-year-old Alan Kurdi's lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach shocked the world in 2015. A German rescue organization has now named a ship after the toddler.
The 49 rescued migrants and refugees say that they are hoping to find "rights and work" in Europe. "We will manage to survive because we know how to adapt to anything," a young Algerian told us.
After weeks of waiting, 49 North African refugees on two rescue vessels have received permission to disembark. Germany has agreed to accept 60 refugees in total amidst ongoing political wrangling within the EU.