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Spanish rescue ship heads home after dramatic rescue
ON BOARD THE OPEN ARMS, Italia, July 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A Spanish NGO
that saved a woman off Libya who was drifting on a deflated dinghy next to
the bodies of a boy and another woman said Wednesday it is taking her to
Spain for her safety. Proactiva Open Arms, whose two ships sail back and
forth in the Mediterranean to save migrants in distress, said it had decided
to return a day after saving the 40-year-old woman from Cameroon.
In a statement explaining why it had decided to go back to Spain, the NGO
said authorities in Italy had offered to take in the woman but not the two
bodies.
It added it feared “for the protection of the surviving woman and her
complete freedom to testify” on what had happened at sea if they left her in
Italy, which has taken a hardline stance towards migrant arrivals.
Proactiva accuses Libyan coastguards of having saved the rest of the
migrants on board the dinghy but not the two women and the child, whom they
say refused to board the rescue vessel and go back to Libya.
The NGO alleges that as a result, the coastguards left them and deflated
the dinghy.
Libyan coastguards have denied Proactiva’s accusations.
Italy’s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, denounced
“lies and insults (that) confirm that we are doing the right thing: reducing
departures and landings means reducing deaths, and reducing the profits of
those who speculate on illegal immigration.”
Italy and Malta are cracking down on NGO boats operating in the
Mediterranean, sharply reining in their rescue efforts as they accuse them of
encouraging migrants to make the perilous crossing.
Proactiva Open Arms is currently the only humanitarian aid group operating
in the central Mediterranean zone, which migrants try to cross to reach Italy
or Malta.
The woman who survived has identified herself as Josepha.
The rescue ship’s medical team said she was in a stable condition but was
traumatised and needed medical and psychological treatment “as soon as
possible.”
The team also called for the quick transfer of the two bodies, as the Open
Arms ship does not have refrigeration facilities to store bodies.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1833 hrs