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Plight over for the Ocean Viking's 182 refugees after landing in Italy

ONE hundred and eighty-two refugees finally disembarked from an NGO migrant rescue ship in Italy this morning after spending a week adrift at sea.

Over 200 refugees were fished out of the Mediterranean sea in three separate operations by the crew aboard the Ocean Viking, a ship operated by the French charities SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) last Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The Maltese authorities transferred 35 refugees the Ocean Viking had rescued from waters within its own search and rescue area on Friday but refused to take the remaining 182 people on board. 

In a statement today SOS Mediterranee said it welcomed Italy’s decision “which puts an end to five days of unnecessary suffering, although international and maritime law states people rescued at sea must be promptly disembarked in a place of safety.”

The governments of Malta, Italy, France and Germany met in Valletta last night and agreed to set up “regulations for a temporary emergency mechanism… that will help Italy and Malta,” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said. 

“Today’s meeting in Valletta is a chance for EU leaders to press reset on deadly migration policies that have costs countless lives,” MSF’s advocacy adviser Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said. 

“It is shameful that they even allowed ad hoc disembarkations to become the new normal.

“In the 15 months since the first refusal of a port for the Aquarius rescue ship to disembark, there have been 30 further standoffs that add up to a combined total of 261 days — nearly nine months — during which nearly 4,000 vulnerable men, women and children have been stranded at sea while EU leaders toyed with their fate. 

“Whatever states agree upon, and no matter how vital a disembarkation mechanism is, any conclusion from today’s meeting will remain highly symbolic until European leaders finally commit to putting lives first.”

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