The humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee said that Ocean Viking, a rescue ship with 422 migrants, was on its way to the port of Sicily on Sunday after receiving permission from the Italian government.
According to search and rescue coordinator Luisa Albera, the migrants were rescued for four days during four operations. Albera said a pregnant woman and another person accompanying her had been evacuated by helicopter to Malta the previous day, The Associated Press reported.
Eight of those on board tested positive for coronavirus, according to the organization.
“Although strict COVID-19 mitigation protocols apply on board the Ocean Viking, it is a 69-meter (228-foot) vessel,” Albera was quoted as saying by the AP. “This situation is a further reason for the remaining 422 survivors, who are in a confined space on the back deck, to get out of a safe place immediately,” she said.
According to the AP, Italian officials began transferring passengers on rescue ships to other ships to have them quarantined during the pandemic. The latest wave of migrants arriving in Italy are seen primarily as economic migrants rather than refugees from war or political persecution, who do not qualify for asylum.
Meanwhile, numerous other migrants entering the country from the Balkans have been deported to Italy and Slovenia, according to the AP. Pope Francis
Pope Francis In Biden, the media finally has a religious president to celebrate the papal commemorations of Holocaust Remembrance Day with a warning against extremism. Pope must miss three upcoming events due to sciatic leg pain MORE on Sunday appealed in particular to humanitarian aid to underage minors and said that although he had recently heard of the plight of those on the Balkan route, “there is so much … on all the routes.”
“Let us work so that these fragile and defenseless beings do not have conscientious care and preferred humanitarian channels,” the pope continued, according to the AP.