MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2019) Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms has offered to bring more than 100 migrants aboard its rescue ship to Sicily and then transport them by plane to Madrid, local media reported Monday.
"To save the dignity of those being saved, they [migrants] could be put off in Catania [a port in Sicily], and then transported to Madrid by plane. Renting a Boeing for 200 people costs 240 Euros [$266] per person," El Periodico newspaper quoted the head of the Open Arms mission in Italy Ricardo Gatti as saying.
On Sunday, the charity sent an urgent request to the Italian island of Lampedusa, near which the vessel is anchored, requesting permission to dock, saying that the migrants on board were in critical psychological condition.
Despite the Open Arms charity boat being only a few hundred feet away from Lampedusa, the Italian authorities are not letting it make port. After the NGO activists refused to go to the Andalusian Port of Algeciras, the "unbearable situation" that has developed on board, the Spanish authorities offered to accept migrants in the Balearic Islands, either in Palma de Mallorca or in Mahon.
More than a hundred migrants from Africa have been aboard the rescue vessel for 18 days. It was reported on Sunday that four migrants jumped into the sea and tried to swim to Lampedusa but were brought back. Many others are reportedly suffering from panic attacks and attempting suicide.
