The charity ship Alan Kurdi reached a rubber boat carrying 32 migrants, ahead of an impending storm on the Mediterranean. According to the Sea-Eye rescue group, they all said they were Libyan citizens.
Some 137 migrants picked up overnight in rescue operations off the Libyan coast are waiting for a safe port to come ashore. Seven migrants, including two new-born babies, have already been evacuated to Lampedusa for medical reasons.
Italy granted permission for migrants on board a Sea-Eye rescue ship to disembark, after nearly a week stranded at sea. The standoff ended after Germany and other EU countries agreed to take in the migrants.
Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese and representatives from NGOs working in migrant search and rescue in the Mediterranean met on Friday. The ministry called the gathering "a first step for the start of a direct dialogue between the parties."
The image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea fleeing the Syrian civil war, caused international outrage. Alan's father now hopes to join the German rescue boat named after his son.
The German search-and-rescue vessel Alan Kurdi has completed its current mission after Malta allowed the disembarkation of the remaining five migrants aboard the charity boat.
Migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking saved 50 people on Sunday from a rubber dinghy off Libya's coast after Libyan authorities, responsible for search and rescue in that area of the Mediterranean, didn't answer multiple contact attempts. Meanwhile, the crew of German NGO ship Alan Kurdi has reported a new suicide attempt among its rescued migrants.
The situation aboard Sea Eye’s migrant rescue vessel Alan Kurdi, banned from Italian waters by outgoing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, is apparently coming to a head: Malta has agreed to evacuate two migrants who were suffering from panic attacks and had repeatedly tried to jump overboard.
The private rescue vessel "Alan Kurdi," run by the private search-and-rescue charity Sea-Eye, confirmed that it would not enter Italian territorial waters after picking up 40 migrants at sea yesterday. The rescued migrants reportedly hail from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Congo and Cameroon.
“Alan Kurdi,” the rescue boat of German NGO Sea-Eye, is starting a new mission to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. A spokesperson of the charity said the mission will last up to four weeks.
The popular German band Revolverheld has donated an unspecified amount of its proceeds to the German Sea-Eye charity. The funds will be enough to finance one week at sea for the private search-and-rescue mission's Alan Kurdi vessel.
Private sea rescue organizations are struggling for their presence in the Mediterranean: Ships are seized, penalties could increase and tedious stand-offs with authorities put a strain on crews. While Sea-Eye has ended its mission for the time being, German charity Mission Lifeline has announced it is preparing a new rescue mission with a new ship.