Civil sea rescue
Sea Watch 4 is waiting to enter port with 480 migrants on board
After the ship rescued several hundred migrants from distress at sea, the crew is now waiting for permission to head for a port.
© Hannah Wallace Bowman / MSF / DPA
The German rescue ship “Sea Watch 4” is waiting with hundreds of migrants on board in the Mediterranean Sea for permission to enter a port. The situation on board is devastating, it is said.
The German sea rescuers from the private organization Sea-Watch are still waiting for a safe harbor with more than 480 rescued people on board. A spokesman for the German press agency confirmed this on Monday.
Many people are exhausted, seasick, and dehydrated
Most recently, the crew of the “Sea-Watch 4” brought more than 100 boat migrants to safety from a double-decker wooden boat on their seventh rescue mission since last Thursday. Among them was a newborn. Many people on the ship of the Berlin-based organization are very exhausted, seasick and dehydrated.
Migrants try again and again to reach Italy and thus the EU in often overcrowded boats. On the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies between Tunisia and Malta, the authorities registered a total of almost 350 people who arrived there in several boats on Monday night. About the Ansa news agency. The reception center on the island is overcrowded.
“Sea Watch 4” was apparently threatened by the Libyan coast guard just last week
According to Ansa, the coast guard rescued almost 90 people from distress at sea off Calabria that same night. The authorities took her to the port city of Roccella Ionica. There, the number of arriving migrants has increased significantly in the past few months. According to the Italian Interior Ministry, around 59,700 migrants have reached Italy in boats so far this year. In the same period last year there were almost 32,500. The Mediterranean country has been asking the EU for help with the distribution of people for a long time.
The “Sea Watch 4” made headlines just last week. According to the rescue organization, there was apparently a conflict with a boat belonging to the Libyan coast guard, which even threatened to kidnap and shoot the rescue ship over the radio. The Berlin-based organization had subsequently asked Europe to end its cooperation with Libya in the Mediterranean.