The French government gave the green light Thursday for the medical evacuation of three of the 234 migrants aboard the Ocean Viking, still stranded in the Mediterranean for lack of allocation of a port to disembark, against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions between Europeans and Italy. “The General Secretariat for the Sea, on the instructions of the Prime Minister, is implementing a medical evacuation operation at sea for four migrants currently on board the Ocean Viking,” the government announced in a press release.
Three people “in a serious state of health”
According to the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which charters the humanitarian boat, there are three migrants and a guide. They are “in a serious state of health and need hospital treatment”. “One of the patients has been unstable and unresponsive to on-board care since October 27. The other two suffered injuries in Libya which, due to the long delay in treatment, are now at risk of adverse consequences to long term,” a spokeswoman for SOS Méditerranée told AFP.
The Ocean Viking rescued these migrants, some almost three weeks ago, between Libya and Italy, as they tried to reach Europe on makeshift boats. It is now the maritime prefecture of the Mediterranean which will take care of this relief, the details of which have not yet been revealed. Contacted by AFP, the maritime prefecture did not wish to communicate. However, this evacuation does not solve the problem of this ship, the last of four humanitarian boats which had collected a total of a thousand migrants and stranded at sea by Italy for days.
Faced with this blockage, SOS Méditerranée turned to France. The NGO, headquartered in Marseille, said Thursday morning that it had “still not received instructions designating a port in France for the disembarkation of survivors” rescued on the most dangerous migratory route in the world.
The Ocean Viking is now off the eastern coast of Corsica
On Wednesday, tension had risen a notch between France and Italy around the Ocean Viking, Paris denouncing Rome’s “unacceptable” refusal to let it dock, as provided for in international maritime law, and Brussels calling for immediate disembarkation of all migrants. The European Commission had estimated on Wednesday that “the situation on board the ship has reached a critical level and must be resolved urgently to avoid a humanitarian tragedy”.
Three other NGO boats managed to disembark the rescued migrants. Docked in Catania since Sunday, the Geo Barents of Médecins sans frontières (MSF) and Humanity 1 of the German NGO of the same name were finally able to disembark all of their passengers on Tuesday evening, after an initial refusal by the Italian authorities to accept all of these people. Initially the Italian authorities had only accepted women, children and sick people, a sorting described by Rome as a means of pressure on the EU so that it helps Italy more. The Rise Above landed all of its 89 survivors in Calabria on Tuesday.
Since June, a relocation system, which had already undergone a first phase in 2019, provides for a dozen member states, including France and Germany, to voluntarily welcome 8,000 migrants who have arrived in countries such as Italy. , close to the Libyan coast.
However, only 164 migrants were relocated in 2022 from Italy to other Member States, including 117 under the mechanism adopted in June. An insufficient number judges Italy, which claims that some 88,100 migrants have arrived on its coasts since January 1, of which only 14% via humanitarian ships.