The 'Aquarius' was once again looking for a safe place to dock
The 'Aquarius' was once again looking for a safe place to dock. On Aug 12, the humanitarian groups that run the ship, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée, called on European governments to provide a 'safe port, the closest possible, as dictated by the law” for the 141 migrants rescued from international waters on Aug 11 with the help of Libya which said it “cannot offer a safe place” and ordered the vessel to contact other countries. The Spanish government does not appear to be willing – at least for now – to permit a rerun of what happened in June, when it offered safe port to the migrants on board the vessel. Official sources from La Moncloa prime ministerial palace said on Aug 13 that Spain was not the safest port, because it is not the closest according to what is set out under international law. The migrants on board the 'Aquarius' were traveling from Libya to Italy in two wooden boats that capsized. Of the 141 people rescued, 67 were unaccompanied minors. Another six boys are traveling with at least one relative, according to the ship’s crew. More than a third come from Eritrea, where many young men have fled to avoid conscription, and from Somalia. The ship has been regularly updating maritime rescue coordination centers in Italy, Malta and Tunisia and recording all communication in a detailed log book. Once it arrived in the rescue zone in front of Libya, the ship contacted Italy and Malta to ask for a safe port. Authorities in Malta refused and Italian authorities did not answer.
