Humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee said Ocean Viking, a rescue ship carrying 422 migrants, entered the port of Sicily on Sunday after permission from the Italian government.
Search and rescue coordinator Luisa Albera said the migrants were rescued by the ship in four operations over a two-day period. Albera said a pregnant woman and another person accompanying her had been evacuated to Malta by helicopter the day before, The Associated Press reported.
Eight of the crew members have tested positive for the corona virus and are in isolation, according to the organization.
“But while strict COVID-19 mitigation protocols apply on board the Ocean Viking, this is a 69-meter ship,” Albera said, according to the AP. “This situation is an additional reason for the remaining 422 survivors, who are in a confined space on the quarterdeck, to disembark immediately in a safe place,” she said.
According to the AP, Italian officials have begun transferring passengers on rescue ships to other ships for quarantine upon arrival during the pandemic. The latest wave of migrants arriving in Italy are primarily rated as economic migrants rather than escaping war or political persecution, making them ineligible for asylum.
Meanwhile, according to the AP, numerous other migrants arriving by land from the Balkans into Italy have been returned in both Italy and Slovenia. Pope Francis
Pope Francis In Biden, the media finally has a religious president to celebrate Pope marking Holocaust Remembrance Day with a warning against extremism Pope to miss three upcoming events due to hip bone pain MORE called for humanitarian assistance, especially for unaccompanied minors, on Sunday, saying that while he had recently learned of the plight of those on the Balkan route, “there are so many … on all routes.”
“Let’s make sure these vulnerable and defenseless creatures do not lack dutiful care and preferential humanitarian channels,” the Pope continued, the AP said.