Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Over 200 migrant kids rescued in Mediterranean

1133218
1133218
minus
plus

PALERMO, Italy: A migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean carried hundreds of children and unaccompanied minors from over 15 countries to safety in Italy on Friday.


The Aquarius, a boat operated by charity group SOS Mediterranee along with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), brought 606 people including 241 minors to Palermo after a series of rescues at sea on Tuesday and Wednesday.


Nearly 180 of the youngsters were unaccompanied, the group said. Rescuers could be seen carrying the youngest charges off the ship, including toddlers in pyjamas and a week-old baby wrapped up tightly in a pink blanket.


“The many rescue operations carried out by Aquarius in recent days over a very wide geographical area show that the humanitarian crisis is still underway or even worsening in the central Mediterranean,” SOS Mediterranee said.


Among the women pulled to safety from unseaworthy dinghies, 11 were pregnant, two in their ninth month.


The migrants, who set sail from Libya for Italy, came from countries including Benin, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria, Somalia and Yemen.


Numerous migrants told aid workers they had been victims of sexual violence and torture in conflict-hit Libya, where they were held prisoner for months.


Border checks to stay: Border controls inside what should normally be Europe’s cherished zone of free travel are here to stay for now, EU ministers said on Friday, citing continued terrorist threats and the need to control migration.


Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway told their Schengen zone peers they will extend until mid-May internal frontier checks first put in place in 2015 to counter unprecedented levels of migration and militant attacks.


At a meeting of European Union interior ministers in Luxembourg, Germany’s Thomas de Maiziere said Berlin was still committed to freedom of movement, “but at the moment we cannot do without checks.”


“The reason is the tense security situation in Europe with regard to international terrorism and the still inadequate protection of our external borders,” he said.


France, which imposed emergency border controls after hardline attackers killed 130 people in Paris in November, 2015, also wants to keep them in place. — AFP/Reuters


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon