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Minors finally transferred from Spanish rescue ship Open Arms to Lampedusa

18 August 2019
10655
2019-08-18 12:48

Minors who have been on board the Spanish charity ship Open Arms for over two weeks were finally transferred to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday. The Barcelona-based NGO Open Arms said that 27 minors had been authorized to leave the ship. That left 107 migrants on the ship.

Open Arms said the 16 days waiting for a port to disembark in had taken their toll on the migrants, with frequent fights breaking about among them and conditions on board deteriorating. Italy's far-right Interior Minister has ordered his officials not to let all the migrants disembark, although on Saturday he made a partial concession, saying he would allow any children to leave the boat. He added that he had only agreed to this at the insistence of Prime Minister.

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