The Sea-Watch 3, which has 32 rescued migrants on board, was on Wednesday given permission to move closer to Malta so that the vessel could take shelter from bad weather that is closing in on the islands, The Malta Independent can confirm.
The vessel, operated by the German NGO Sea-Watch, rescued the migrants following a distress call on 22 December, 12 days ago, and has been stranded at sea ever since as no nation has acceded to their request for a safe port to disembark the migrants.
Sea-Watch was initially confined to sitting 24 nautical miles outside of Malta however, given the bad weather that is approaching the islands and the area around it, permission for the boat to move to within 12 nautical miles of Malta was granted on Wednesday.
There are four women, three unaccompanied minors, two young children and a baby amongst the 32 rescued migrants onboard the Sea-Watch 3, along with 22 crew members.
Only days prior to the New Year, the boat had received a distress call from the Italian Coastguard's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome directing them to another boat of migrants, thought to be consisting of around 75 onboard, however they were unable to locate them and eventually abandoned their search. It is not known what happened to the migrants since the search was abandoned.
Another NGO vessel, the Professor Albrecht Penck, operated by Sea-Eye and holding onboard another 17 migrants is also close to Malta taking shelter from the adverse weather conditions. It is currently holding station off the south western coast of the island, close to the island of Filfla. The migrants onboard were rescued a week after those on the Sea-Watch 3 were – on 29 December.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Sea-Watch said that Malta was negotiating a redistribution of the migrants across Europe, but a joint statement from Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye issued on the same day, whilst understanding the need for such an agreement, called for both vessels to be allowed into port whilst the negotiations are ongoing so to ensure the safety of all those onboard.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of Malta over the course of the New Year rescued 249 migrants in three separate operations, bringing all three groups to Malta.
from The Malta Independent http://bit.ly/2TlzqkX
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