629 Migrants, Including Pregnant Women And Children, Rescued But Stranded Mid-Sea

More than 600 migrants aboard Aquarius, a ship operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the SOS Mediterranee organizations, were stranded in the Mediterranean Sea after the Italian interior minister and leader of the anti-immigration League party, Matteo Salvini, refused to give it permission to dock in one of the country’s ports.

Salvini took to Facebook to defend his country’s anti-immigration stance on Sunday, citing examples of other European countries which also disallow migrants to enter their land. In a post he wrote:

"In the Mediterranean Sea, there are boats carrying Dutch, Spanish, Gibraltar and British flags. There are NGO's from Spain and Germany, meanwhile there is also Malta that does not welcome anyone. There is France too, that refuses and pushes back at their border. There is Spain that protects their own borders with weapons, well, that means all of Europe is minding its own private interest.

Starting today Italy will commence to say NO to human trafficking, NO to the business of clandestine immigration. My objective is to guarantee a peaceful life to all these people in Africa and to our children in Italy.”

The occupants of the rescue ship included 400 people who were picked up by the Italian navy and transferred via coast guard boats and private cargo ships to Aquarius. The remaining 229 migrants were pulled by the ship’s rescue crews from the water or from rubbers vessels operated by the traffickers on Saturday night.

As the Italian government refused to budge from their stance, MSF Sea tweeted imploring authorities to find a “swift resolution and a designated port of safety” as the migrants onboard Aquarius, who were “unaware of ongoing diplomatic standoff,” were in need of emergency medical attention.

“Medical situation for 629 people currently onboard #Aquarius stable for now but unnecessary delay to disembarkation in safe port puts vulnerable patients at risk, particularly: 7 pregnant women, 15 w/ serious chemical burns, several critical drowning +hypothermia patients,” MSF Sea tweeted.

However, far from coming to a consensus, the Italian government seemed immersed in playing the blame game. In a joint statement with Italian Transportation Minister Danilo Toninelli on Sunday, Salvini made it clear that it was Malta’s turn to “open its ports for the hundreds of the rescued on the NGO ship Aquarius.”

“The island can’t continue to turn the other way,” the statement said, the Times of Israel reported. “The Mediterranean is the sea of all the countries that face it, and it (Malta) can’t imagine that Italy will continue to face this giant phenomenon in solitude.”

As it turned out Aquarius was located 35 nautical miles from Italy and 27 nautical miles from Malta, a position it was told to “standby” by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, CNN reported.

Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, on the other hand, made it abundantly clear via social media that it was not his island which was to be blamed for the difficult position that the migrants of Aquarius had been put in.

"Malta is in full conformity with international obligations & will not take the vessel in its ports. We will continue, where possible, carrying out individual & humanitarian emergency medical evacuations," Muscat tweeted adding in a separate tweet that it was Italy who “manifestly go against international rules, and risk creating a dangerous situation for all those involved."

Meanwhile MSF Sea appealed to the leaders of both nations to put humanity above their political agendas as hundreds of lives were at stake.