Hundreds of migrants set to land at Puglia

Some 314 migrants are on board the Geo Barents which is set to dock in Taranto

TARANTO - As many as 314 refugees on board the rescue ship Geo Barents are set to land on the Italian mainland on Wednesday following a five day ordeal at sea according to NGO officials.

 Médecins Sans Frontières, who carried out the rescue mission, tweeted “after five pointless days waiting, our 314 survivors will disembark at the port of Taranto. What a relief after the traumatic experiences they went through!”

 According to MSF they made five separate request to ports in Italy and Malta before finally being granted a safe passage to land at Taranto.

 It was new that was greeted on board by applause and celebration although it will take another day of sailing to reach the assigned port at Taranto. “It is around 27 hours away from our current position” explained the captain of the Geo Barents.

 The migrants on board the humanitarian ship were recused from the central Mediterranean in six different operations. There are around 70 young children on board, the youngest of which is just three months old.

 The ship’s crew added that the children “have been through tragedies that no child should ever face.”

 Meanwhile MSF posted pictures on Twitter of drawings from the children that said “Geo Barents ship I love you” with an illustration of their rescue ship.

 “Despite our fourth search for a safe place to land, we were on our fourth day waiting a sea” the captain of Geo Barents had explained yesterday. “After almost drowning, the survivors are physically and emotionally exhausted and are in need of assistance. Without an allocated port they had remained stranded at sea.”

 It comes after the Geo Barents was involved in another rescue mission early this month on July 2 in which 65 people were saved from a rubber boat which also landed at the port of Taranto.

 Earlier this month Juan Matías Gil, the head of the mission at MSF, said that the EU needed to do more by reintroducing better cross-Europe rescue missions instead of relying of the work of NGOs that operate ships such as the Geo Barents.

 jd

 

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