ROME – Fifty migrants rescued on Thursday from a tugboat in Maltese waters are being transported by a commercial ship to Pozzallo. The vessel Asso 25 was initially headed to Lampedusa, but changed route during the night and is expected to arrive at the Ragusa port at 2 pm.

 Interior Minister Matteo Salvini did not pose any obstacles to the arrival of the vessel, il Fatto Quotidiano said, and the Pozzallo Harbor Master’s Office is alert to its arrival.

 Alarm Phone, an independent telephone line for people in distress crossing the Mediterranean, posted on their official account on Twitter that the 50 migrants spent the night afloat at Malta’s search and rescue (SAR) zone without assistance.

 “Since yesterday the Alarm Phone is in contact with 50 people in distress. Malta is informed, but did not rescue yet,” the entity wrote Thursday at dawn. In the afternoon, Alarm Phone announced the tugboat had been rescued. “According to several sources, the Asso25 has carried out a rescue operation for the boat that had called us earlier.”

 The rescued boat is one of several others sailing from Libya.

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