The French government, which on Thursday suspended the reception planned for this summer of 3,500 refugees currently in Italy, announced the medical evacuation of four passengers on board theOcean Viking, stranded in the Mediterranean with 234 migrants on board. According to the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which charters the boat, there are three migrants and an accompanying person. Earlier, the humanitarian ship had indeed requested the “urgent medical evacuation” of three people, who are “in a serious state of health and require hospital treatment”.
“One of the patients is unstable and unresponsive to onboard care since October 27. The other two suffered injuries in Libya which, due to the long delay in treatment, now risk having long-term negative consequences,” said a spokeswoman for the NGO.
SOS Méditerranée sent its request to the French authorities via the Regional Operational Centers for Surveillance and Rescue (CROSS) and this request was “taken into consideration”, according to the NGO headquartered in Marseille.
A third of passengers will be “relocated” to France
The ship is now up off the Corsican coast and is, according to the Marine Traffic site, off Aleria. And in the process, Gérald Darmanin announced at the exit of the Council of Ministers that the ship would be welcomed on Friday in Toulon, in the south of France. A third of the passengers will be “relocated” to France, also indicated the Minister of the Interior, before denouncing the “incomprehensible choice” of Italy not to welcome theOcean Vikingwhich has 231 migrants on board who are still stranded in the Mediterranean.
“I made it clear, at the request of the President of the Republic, that it is on an exceptional basis that we are welcoming this boat, given the fifteen days of waiting at sea that the Italian authorities made the passengers undergo”, declared the Minister at the end of the Council of Ministers. Those who do not meet the criteria for asylum seekers “will be returned directly”, he said.