Italy: 82 migrants disembark rescue ship 'Ocean Viking' in Lampedusa

SOT, Gabriele Eminente, General Director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Italy: "During the weekend, precisely on September 8, the ship 'Ocean Viking' through which, along with SOS Mediterranee, [we] do research and carry out rescue activities at sea in the central Mediterranean. We saved 84 people in two distinct rescue operations. There were 84 people aboard [the vessel], and there are now 82 people, because one of them, a woman in the ninth month of pregnancy, was in fact transferred to a hospital, given the precarious situation of her health. We are therefore talking about 82 people aboard [the vessel], who are extremely vulnerable. All of them have gone through the hell that is Libya. Many of them were in detention centres in Libya; many have been subjected to torture. We have testimonies of people who have been subjected to torture. There are several unaccompanied minors aboard [the vessel]. There is a one-year-old child. There is also a woman in the eighth month of pregnancy." *LOOSE TRANSLATION*
W/S Rescue ship 'Ocean Viking', Lampedusa
W/S Rescue ship 'Ocean Viking'
W/S Rescue ship 'Ocean Viking'
M/S Rescue ship 'Ocean Viking'
C/U Rescue ship 'Ocean Viking'
M/S Migrants disembarking
W/S Migrants disembarking
M/S Migrants
W/S Migrants
W/S Emergency vehicles
M/S Emergency vehicles
SCRIPT
Some 82 migrants were allowed to disembark from the rescue ship 'Ocean Viking' on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday, after being stranded at sea for six days.
Italian authorities granted permission for the vessel to dock in Lampedusa earlier in the day.
The vessel, which is operated by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), rescued 50 migrants in the Mediterranean last Sunday and took 34 more from another boat. A nine-month-pregnant woman and her husband were reportedly airlifted to Malta earlier this week.
The move comes several days after Italy’s new coalition government took office. Former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had previously banned rescue ships from docking at Italian ports.