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Charity ship takes on 34 migrants off Libya, rejects port

Charity ship takes on 34 migrants off Libya, rejects port | iNFOnews.ca
A member of the SOS Mediterranee search and rescue team speaks to a member of the German group Resqship before migrants rescued by the Josefa are to be onto a dinghy to be taken onto the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, in the Mediterranean Sea, late Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Thirty-four migrants including women and the small child who were rescued by the German sailboat have been successfully taken aboard the humanitarian ship in international waters north of Libya despite a thunderstorm. (AP Photo/Renata Brito)

A group of 34 migrants that included a pregnant woman and a small child safely moved during a thunderstorm from a charity-operated sailboat responsible for their rescue to a larger humanitarian ship in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya.

Wrapped in shiny thermal blankets, 22 men, six women and a 1-year-old boy were transferred late Monday in international waters about 120 kilometres (75 miles) off the Libyan coast, near the Bouri offshore oil field.

The crew of a 14-meter-long sailboat operated by German charity Resqship picked up the migrants from a rubber boat with a broken engine earlier Monday.

The passengers were relocated in pouring rain to the Ocean Viking, a much bigger aid ship jointly run by Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, after the sailboat declared a state of emergency.

One of the women was 8 months pregnant, according to a midwife on the Norwegian-flagged ship. An Associated Press journalist who also was on board witnessed the transfer.

The Ocean Viking is now carrying more than 80 migrants. The ship rescued 50 migrants over the weekend, including a pregnant woman at full term.

The ship has requested a safe place to disembark passengers. Libya’s rescue co-ordinationcentre gave authorization to enter the Libyan port of Zawiyah. Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said the Ocean Viking’s crew declined the assignment because the U.N. refugee agency doesn’t consider Libya safe.

“From our work providing medical care in Libyan detention centres, MSF know this all too well, having witnessed how people are trapped in inhumane conditions and vulnerable to abuse, often caught in the crossfire of ongoing conflict,” the group said in a statement.

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Follow AP’s full coverage at: https://www.apnews.com/migrants

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