Aboard the Rescue Ship Where Migrants Have Been Stuck for a Week

Nearly a week after they were first rescued from six crowded rubber dinghies adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of migrants have found their journey is still not over.

After their rescue ship was turned away by Italy and Malta, setting off a heated debate about migration to Europe, the group was offered refuge in Valencia, Spain. But bad weather has further delayed the refugees — including dozens of children, several pregnant women and others in need of medical attention — from their destination.

While they wait for their ship to reach land, children pass the time playing games on the deck, women cradle babies still too small to walk and dozens of people sleep on the floor, crammed together in orderly rows to maximize the little space they have.

Footage posted by Doctors Without Borders showed children playing on ropes tied on the deck to keep people from slipping as the ship rocked.

These are the scenes aboard the Aquarius, a humanitarian ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée, an aid group working with Doctors Without Borders. The Aquarius rescued the 629 migrants last weekend in the Central Mediterranean.

Doctors Without Borders says it hopes the ship will arrive in Spain by Sunday, but the ordeal has further exposed disagreements over immigration within the European Union.

The Aquarius rescues were coordinated under Italian authority because that country is responsible for rescues in the Central Mediterranean. Italy’s newly elected populist government, however, wanted nothing to do with the migrants, suggesting Malta take them.

Malta followed suit, denying them entry, before Spain stepped in Monday to say it would allow the ship to enter the eastern port of Valencia.

The migrants were then divided among three vessels: the Aquarius, an Italian coast guard vessel and another ship from the Italian navy. They were more than 760 nautical miles from the port of Valencia. Some 106 people remained on the Aquarius, according to Aloys Vimard, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders aboard the ship.

The disagreements in Europe weren’t all that stood in the way of the migrants reaching port: Stormy weather Thursday caused further delays as the ship changed course. By Friday, it was headed toward its destination but had taken a longer route, past the Italian island of Sardinia.

“People are exhausted and really unwell after six days at sea in rough weather,” Vimard said during a telephone interview, describing how many were seasick for days. “It’s heartbreaking to see these people who were pushed away from Italy’s shores to this unnecessarily prolonged journey. They are in such a difficult situation.”

Those running the rescue operations are also concerned that the ship’s prolonged assignment is harming efforts to aid other migrants in distress in the well-traveled route between Libya and Italy.

“We are not on a cruise here — it’s an emergency lifesaving search and rescue boat,” Vimard said. “We are away from the main area when there are very few resources available for rescue.”

Those aboard the ships come from 26 countries in Africa, and include 123 minors, 11 small children and seven pregnant women. At least 15 people have serious chemical burns caused by the combination of gasoline used to fuel the dinghies and sea salt, according to Doctors Without Borders.

SOS Méditerranée has been documenting the journey on its Twitter account, and on Thursday tweeted that the passengers aboard the ship were anxious for dry land as they passed by Sardinia.

To continue on its journey, the ship also paused to receive supplies from another Italian coast guard ship, which brought nuts, dried bananas, soup and toys for the children. Staff on the ship described the situation as “surreal” — toy dolls and trucks were piled high on the deck.

Human rights groups and international monitors fear the episode has created a dangerous precedent of turning migrants away from Italy — a country on the front line of the influx of people crossing from Libya into Europe.

Since the beginning of 2018, more than 15,000 people have made their way to Italy by crossing the Mediterranean. Most depart from Libya, where civil war has left the borders porous, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Shipping unions also warned that the decisions by Malta and Italy to refuse migrants the right to land on their shores put the crews of other ships in a difficult situation. Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and other maritime laws, merchant ships and other vessels have an obligation to rescue people in distress at sea.

“It is high time the European Union and its member states got their act together and agreed on a long-term sustainable solution to this long-standing problem at its borders and addressed the issue in a humanitarian manner,” said Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation.