After a week-long odyssey across the Mediterranean, the rescue ship has entered the port of Toulon. But now there is an open conflict between Paris and Rome.
A French helicopter takes a migrant, who urgently needs hospital treatment, off board the “Ocean Viking”.
Accompanied by military ships and helicopters, the rescue ship “Ocean Viking” entered the port of Toulon shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday morning. On board were 230 migrants who the crew of the aid organization SOS Méditerranée rescued from distress in the Mediterranean about three weeks ago. Since then, the crew had made more than 40 requests to go ashore in Italy or Malta – in vain. The sanitary and moral conditions on board the ship gradually deteriorated, and several of the passengers became ill. Given these circumstances, the French authorities promised on Thursday to receive the ship in Toulon. Four migrants had already been brought to Bastia in Corsica by helicopter on Thursday as medical emergencies.