The Spanish authorities decided on Tuesday to send a naval vessel to collect the migrants stranded on the Open Arms charity's rescue ship, which is anchored near the Italian island of Lampedusa
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2019) The Spanish authorities decided on Tuesday to send a naval vessel to collect the migrants stranded on the Open Arms charity's rescue ship, which is anchored near the Italian island of Lampedusa.Earlier in the day, nine migrants jumped off the rescue ship in an attempt to swim to the Italian coast.
"It will join the boat to the port of Palma, in Mallorca. With this measure Spain will solve, this week, the humanitarian emergency," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter.
The naval vessel, the Audaz, is expected to reach Lampedusa in three days.
Despite the fact that the vessel is only a few hundred feet away from the Italian island, its authorities are not letting it dock.
Meanwhile, more than a hundred migrants from Africa are aboard the Open Arms boat, with the charity saying that they are in critical psychological condition.
On Sunday, Spain offered the vessel to dock at its port in Algeciras, but the charity said that the humanitarian situation on the ship was dire and that the passengers and crew would not make the five-day journey there.
