The containership ‘Alexander Maersk’ picked up 113 migrants from a boat off south Italy, on Friday June 22, Maersk Line informed during the weekend.
Namely, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre asked the vessel to to change its course on Thursday, in order to pick up the migrants on Friday morning, Reuters reported.
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The containership is currently south of Sicily, where it waits for further instructions from the authorities. The people on board are well in their health, considering their situation.
ECSA had previously expressed its concerns about the problems that a vessel with migrants faced to disembark them in Malta and Italy. Namely, it had warned that merchant vessels could also face the same problems, and the ‘Alexander Maersk’ is a sign of that.
Crewmembers on merchant vessels are not trained to conduct large scale rescue operations nor are merchant vessels equipped to have migrants on board for a long period of time.
As Martin Dorsman, ECSA Secretary General stated:
It is not acceptable that a merchant vessel, saving migrants on its own or called upon to assist in search and rescue activities, is confronted with this kind of problems. Problems that potentially affect the safety and well-being of the migrants and the crew.
ECSA also repeated the necessity for merchant vessels to be able to disembark migrants at a European port as soon as possible, and urged European authorities to take all the necessary steps to guarantee this.
Last week, after refusing to accept 226 migrants onboard a German charity rescue ship, Italy now seems to relent, saying it would take them in, but would impound the vessel, Reuters said.
Interior minister, Matteo Salvini, initially said the Dutch-flagged ship Lifeline should take the people from the Mediterranean to the Netherlands and not Italy. However, transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, later said it was unsafe for the 32-meter vessel to travel such a great distance with so many people onboard.
