The humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee said Ocean Viking, a rescue boat carrying 422 migrants, was heading to the port of Sicily on Sunday after receiving permission from the Italian government.
The migrants were rescued by the ship in four operations over a two-day period, according to search and rescue coordinator Luisa Albera. Albera said a pregnant woman and another person accompanying her had been evacuated to Malta by helicopter the day before, The Associated Press reported.
Eight of those on board tested positive for coronavirus and are isolated, according to the organization.
“But even though strict COVID-19 mitigation protocols are applied aboard the Ocean Viking, it is a 69-meter-long vessel,” Albera said, according to the AP. “This situation is another reason for the remaining 422 survivors, who are in a small space on the aft deck, to be disembarked quickly in a safe place,” he said.
Italian officials have begun transferring passengers from rescue boats to other ships to allow them to be quarantined on arrival during the pandemic, according to the AP. The latest wave of migrants arriving in Italy is assessed primarily as economic migrants rather than fugitives from war or political persecution, making them ineligible for asylum.
Meanwhile, many other immigrants entering Italy by land from the Balkans have been pushed back to both Italy and Slovenia, according to the AP. Pope Francis
In Biden, the media finally has a religious president to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day with the warning against extremism. Pope will miss three upcoming events due to sciatica leg pain MORE on Sunday he called for humanitarian aid in particular for unaccompanied minors, saying that although he had recently learned of the situation of those on the Balkan route, “there are so many … on all routes.”
“We are working so that these fragile and helpless creatures do not lack careful care and preferential humanitarian channels,” the pontiff continued, according to the AP.