572 people rescued: “Ocean Viking” arrives in Sicily

For a week the crew of the “Ocean Viking” searched for a safe haven for more than 500 rescued people. Now the sea rescuer has landed in the port of Augusta in Sicily.

The “Ocean Viking” arrived in Sicily in the morning. On board the ship of the rescue organization SOS Mediterranee there are several hundred people whom the crew rescued in the Mediterranean in the past few days.

The crew and those rescued were relieved when the “Ocean Viking” was able to moor in the port of Augusta. After days of tug-of-war, the Italian authorities gave the green light yesterday evening for the rescue organization SOS Méditerranée’s ship to call at Sicily. The crew of the “Ocean Viking” had brought a total of 572 people on board in several rescue operations off the Libyan and Maltese coasts.

According to SOS Méditerrané, more than a quarter of them are unaccompanied young people and children. The rescued come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Libya, among others. They had tried to get to Europe across the Mediterranean in wooden and rubber dinghies. After Malta had refused to admit the rescued, the situation on board the “Ocean Viking” had become problematic, among other things because the food supplies were running out.

Covid tests and quarantine

After arriving in the port of Augusta, the Italian authorities announced that Covid tests would be carried out for all people on the “Ocean Viking”. It is still unclear where the rescued can spend their mandatory quarantine. There is currently no quarantine ship in the port of Augusta. The Italians recently used corresponding ships in similar cases. After the Covid tests and the quarantine, people are to be taken to various reception centers in Italy.

There is still no agreement in the European Union on how boat migrants arriving across the Mediterranean are to be distributed in Europe. In the meantime, off Lampedusa, the Italian coast guard has found the bodies of several people who overturned their boat more than a week ago. Around 60 people are said to have been on board, 46 of whom were rescued.