MESSINA – The Italian authorities gave permission Sunday for 182 migrants to disembark from the Ocean Viking at the port of Messina, Sicily.

 The 182 migrants currently onboard the Ocean Viking, a humanitarian rescue ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée and operated in partnership with Médicins Sans Frontières, were rescued at sea in recent weeks.  The number includes 35 people rescued from a wooden boat on Thursday, in coordination with the Maltese maritime authorities. 

 Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that there are also 14 children onboard, including an eight-day-old baby.

 This is the second time in a week that Italy has opened a port to a humanitarian rescue ship.

 On September 18, in response to Ocean Viking’s request for a place of safety for the migrants to disembark, the Libyan maritime authorities assigned the port of Al-Khums.  However, SOS Méditerranée had to decline.

 “The rescued people onboard our ship are fleeing from this country and in serious risk of being victim of abuses, tortures, exploitation and sexual violences if they were to be returned to Libya," explained Nicola Stalla, a Search and Rescue coordinator onboard the Ocean Viking.

 In a press statement, SOS Méditerranée also highlighted the lack of coordination offered for its search and rescue operations by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Tripoli.

 As EU leaders meet on Monday in Malta to discuss migration, SOS Méditerranée is calling for an urgent change to European migration law.

 “It is unacceptable that the people who have survived this very dangerous crossing, being rescued from their unseaworthy overcrowded boats by non governmental ships, are stranded at sea for days and sometimes weeks before finding a Place of Safety. It is urgent that a European agreement is found to put an end to these repeated stand-offs,” said Stalla.

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