Minors from charity NGO Open Arms transferred to Italian mainland as ship remains offshore
Record ID:
1427730
Minors from charity NGO Open Arms transferred to Italian mainland as ship remains offshore
- Title: Minors from charity NGO Open Arms transferred to Italian mainland as ship remains offshore
- Date: 19th August 2019
- Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (AUGUST 19, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MINORS ARRIVING IN VANS TO PORT SIDE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LAMPEDUSA PRIEST DON CARMELO LA MAGRA SAYING: "It is the eighteenth day of sufferance, without answers for these little more than 100 people who, after arriving in safe waters need to be brought to land but instead they are still waiting with no change in their circumstance. This is a useless exercise because sooner or later they need to come off that ship so every extra day is like an extension of a torture." CROSS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LAMPEDUSA PRIEST DON CARMELO LA MAGRA SAYING: "These are political games, maybe a show of power but what is worse is that this is done on the backs of these poor and vulnerable people." POLICE ON PORT SIDE/ MINORS GETTING OUT OF VANS CARABINIERI MILITARY POLICE STANDING NEARBY MINORS SEATED PORT SIDE CARABINIERI MINORS ON PORT SIDE MINORS BEING LED ONTO FERRY MINORS WAITING TO BOARD
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2019 10:45
- Keywords: Migrants Spanish charity ship Open Arms Lampedusa island
- Location: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
- City: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001ASVW1TZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Twenty-seven minors from the Spanish charity ship Open Arms were transferred from the Italian island of Lampedusa on Monday (August 19) to the mainland as 107 people remained on board the ship blocked at sea.
As the minors, joined by other migrants from different arrivals, were lined up on the port side waiting for the ferry, news arrived that Spain and Italy appeared to have reached a deal that the migrants still on board Open Arms would be transferred to the Spanish port of Mallorca.
Open Arms described the decision as "incomprehensible," given the deteriorating conditions on the ship and their proximity to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Speaking on the port side, Lampedusa priest Don Carmelo La Magra said every day the migrants had to wait on board Open Arms was "an extension of a torture"
For more than two weeks, the migrants have been left floating off the Italian coast, caught between a tug of war between Italy's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini's tough line on immigration and the EU´s initial reluctance to find a solution.
Open Arms said on Monday that disembarking in Mallorca would add another three days to what has been a trying situation.
(Production: Guglielmo Mangiapane, Gabriele Pileri, Eleanor Biles) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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