Saved from death at sea but
denied a place to land by Italy, the 629
migrants rescued by the charity ship Aquarius
have endured an additional 700 nautical mile-
trip to Spain that one of the rescuers blamed
on “idiotic” politics.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head
of the far-right League party, who denied the
Aquarius a safe harbour, said on Thursday
the migrants had no right “to decide where to
start and end their cruise”.
Having spent 20 hours in overcrowded rubber
dinghies before being rescued after leaving
the coast of Libya, and then a week on the
Aquarius with an uncertain future, 4-metre
(13 ft) waves added to the migrants’ misery
overnight, Max Avis, the deputy search-and-
rescue chief on the ship, told Reuters.
“The nurse was giving a vomit bag to a
woman as she was breastfeeding her baby,”
Avis said.
“We have the most vulnerable of the
vulnerable on the ship right now, and instead
of being taken care of and supported, they’re
being used ... for some idiotic exercise of
political influence.”
The Aquarius incident has given Italy’s new
government a chance to assert its anti-
migration credentials and has drawn both
criticism and support from neighbouring
countries in the European Union, which has
failed to find an EU-wide solution to the
challenge of huge numbers of people fleeing
to Europe.
There are 51 women and 10 children among
the migrants, most of whom sleep on deck.
Apart from seasickness, many have burns
from a mix of fuel and seawater, and medics
on the Aquarius treated a man whose finger
was partially amputated in Libya.
One of the rubber boats broke apart in the
middle of the night-time rescue, Avis said. It
was discovered only on Friday that two young
men were missing, probably drowned. Many
others had to be resuscitated after being
pulled from the sea.
“We pulled out people who had drowned.
Literally they were sitting like a foetus under
water and we just grabbed them and pulled
them in. The medic was doing resuscitations
and we just threw more and more people on
top of the people he was resuscitating ... This
went on for six hours,” Avis said.
“We ran out of life-jackets. We started taking
life-jackets off of people as they climbed up
(into the rescue boat) and throwing them to
people falling into the water.”
To transport all 629 people to Spain safely,
Italy is using two of its vessels in a convoy
with the Aquarius, run by a Franco-German
charity, which has 106 on board. The
migrants are due to disembark in the port of
Valencia on Sunday, eight days after being
rescued and nine after setting out from Libya.
Meanwhile on Friday, Italy’s coastguard was
recovering another 500 migrants, Transport
Minister Danilo Toninelli said.
“No one can say we are shrugging off our
duties, or that we are racist and xenophobic,”
Toninelli said in a statement. “Italy has
always been and remains on the front line
when it comes to saving lives at sea.”
denied a place to land by Italy, the 629
migrants rescued by the charity ship Aquarius
have endured an additional 700 nautical mile-
trip to Spain that one of the rescuers blamed
on “idiotic” politics.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head
of the far-right League party, who denied the
Aquarius a safe harbour, said on Thursday
the migrants had no right “to decide where to
start and end their cruise”.
Having spent 20 hours in overcrowded rubber
dinghies before being rescued after leaving
the coast of Libya, and then a week on the
Aquarius with an uncertain future, 4-metre
(13 ft) waves added to the migrants’ misery
overnight, Max Avis, the deputy search-and-
rescue chief on the ship, told Reuters.
“The nurse was giving a vomit bag to a
woman as she was breastfeeding her baby,”
Avis said.
“We have the most vulnerable of the
vulnerable on the ship right now, and instead
of being taken care of and supported, they’re
being used ... for some idiotic exercise of
political influence.”
The Aquarius incident has given Italy’s new
government a chance to assert its anti-
migration credentials and has drawn both
criticism and support from neighbouring
countries in the European Union, which has
failed to find an EU-wide solution to the
challenge of huge numbers of people fleeing
to Europe.
There are 51 women and 10 children among
the migrants, most of whom sleep on deck.
Apart from seasickness, many have burns
from a mix of fuel and seawater, and medics
on the Aquarius treated a man whose finger
was partially amputated in Libya.
One of the rubber boats broke apart in the
middle of the night-time rescue, Avis said. It
was discovered only on Friday that two young
men were missing, probably drowned. Many
others had to be resuscitated after being
pulled from the sea.
“We pulled out people who had drowned.
Literally they were sitting like a foetus under
water and we just grabbed them and pulled
them in. The medic was doing resuscitations
and we just threw more and more people on
top of the people he was resuscitating ... This
went on for six hours,” Avis said.
“We ran out of life-jackets. We started taking
life-jackets off of people as they climbed up
(into the rescue boat) and throwing them to
people falling into the water.”
To transport all 629 people to Spain safely,
Italy is using two of its vessels in a convoy
with the Aquarius, run by a Franco-German
charity, which has 106 on board. The
migrants are due to disembark in the port of
Valencia on Sunday, eight days after being
rescued and nine after setting out from Libya.
Meanwhile on Friday, Italy’s coastguard was
recovering another 500 migrants, Transport
Minister Danilo Toninelli said.
“No one can say we are shrugging off our
duties, or that we are racist and xenophobic,”
Toninelli said in a statement. “Italy has
always been and remains on the front line
when it comes to saving lives at sea.”
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