The Alan Kurdi ship run by the German charity Sea-Eye rescued the migrants on Wednesday off Libya. They include 12 women, an 11-month-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
NEITHER BOTH COUNTRIES ACCEPTED THE RESCUERS
“On 3 April, we rescued 64 persons from a rubber boat in international waters off Libya. As the Libyan coast guard seems to be out of service and the rescue coordination center in Tripoli was not responding to emails or phone calls from Sea-Eye a port of safety was requested from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCC) in Rome and Valletta,” Carlotta Weibl, spokeswoman for the German humanitarian organisation Sea-Eye said. “Malta says we can’t enter their waters and we are unlikely to get permission from Italy,” she added.
The Italian coast guard had on Friday afternoon accepted to take children and their mothers from the vessel, the NGO Sea-Eye said that it had aborted the evacuation because Italy had refused to take the fathers on board.
The Alan Kurdi ship is named after a two-year-old Kurdish boy who drowned in the sea in 2015 as he and his family fled war in Syria. The image of his small, lifeless body washed ashore prompted an outpouring of sympathy for the plight of migrants.