265 Migrants Rescued In Mediterranean, Pregnant Woman And 6 Babies Await Port Of Safety

An Open Arms charity boat that rescued 265 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea has been seeking a port of safety for the rescued refugees in the past few days.

The Spanish-flagged ship owned by the charity group rescued a total of 265 migrants in two separate missions last week.

On Saturday, it rescued 96 migrants who had been adrift in a wooden boat without life jackets in international waters. Most of the refugees were from Eritrea, a northeastern African country. The rescued passengers in the mission included two women and 17 minors. Most of them were suffering from hypothermia, said the vessel's crew as per Al Jazeera.

In a previous mission on Dec. 31, Open Arms rescued 169 migrants who had departed from Libyan shores where many human traffickers are based.

Among the rescued refugees was a nine-month pregnant woman and six babies reported Euro Weekly News. The crew members expressed their concern about the safety and health of the refugees especially the babies. The youngest of them was a 10-month-old boy.

The NGO rescue boat had requested to dock in Malta but was denied entry by the authorities. "We tried to get in touch with the rescue center in Malta, but they never pick up the phone and sometimes just hung up immediately without answering," an Alarm Phone spokesperson said, reported local news outlet Times of Malta. Alarm Phone is an emergency hotline NGO that receives SOS messages from migrants crossing the Mediterranean and communicates it to the national authorities.

Malta, along with Italy, has often denied docking permission to the humanitarian rescue boats, arguing that most migrants wish to reach relatives or get jobs in Northern Europe. The two have also urged other European nations to do their share.

Some of the refugees flee their homeland out of poverty, while some others are fleeing persecution or conflict and are often denied asylum by European Union countries.

In November 2020, Open Arms said that at least five people had died in a shipwreck in international waters off Libya, reported Al Jazeera. The NGO reported that around 100 people, including children and babies, were found stranded in waters after the floor of the dinghy they traveled in had collapsed.