ROME (AP) – A Spanish-flagged humanitarian ship on Sunday sought a safe haven for 265 migrants the crew had rescued from the Mediterranean in recent days.
The charity Open Arms tweeted that its ship had safely brought on board 96 migrants on Saturday who had been adrift in a wooden boat without life jackets in international waters. It said the passengers, most of them from Eritrea, included two women and 17 minors and were suffering from hypothermia.
In a separate operation two days before that rescue, Open Arms took on board 169 migrants who had left the Libyan coast, where many human traffickers are located.
The traffickers are launching ships, many of them thin dinghies or rickety fishing boats, full of migrants hoping to reach European shores to seek asylum. Some are fleeing conflict or persecution, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued at sea in recent years are fleeing poverty and thus are denied asylum from European Union countries.
Italy and its fellow countryman Malta have often refused permission to dock humanitarian lifeboats, because most migrants want to reach a job or family in Northern Europe. The Italian and Maltese government authorities have urged other European countries to do their part.