Humanitarian ship with 64 migrants on board is stuck in the Mediterranean after Italy
Humanitarian ship with 64 migrants on board is stuck in the Mediterranean after Italy's Matteo Salvini says: 'Take them to Germany!'
- Sea-Eye's ship, the Alan Kurdi, rescued the migrants off Libya on Wednesday
- On Thursday the vessel was close to the Italian island of Lampedusa
- Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday that the ship could 'go to Hamburg'
- Sea-Eye said such a voyage would take three to four weeks and was impossible
By Ross Ibbetson For Mailonline
Published: 08:02 EDT, 4 April 2019 | Updated: 08:15 EDT, 4 April 2019
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A humanitarian vessel with 64 rescued migrants was left stuck in the Mediterranean after Italy's Matteo Salvini said it could 'go to Hamburg.'
Malta refused the ship entry to their waters as it sailed close to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday after the migrants were hauled from the sea on Wednesday.
The Maltese and Italian refusal sets the stage for another Mediterranean stand-off that will only be resolved if European governments agree to accept the asylum-seekers.
Italian Interior Minister Salvini stated on Wednesday the ship could head to Germany but Sea Eye's spokeswoman said that was 'out of the question.'
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Italian Interior Minister and Vice Premier Matteo Salvini adjusts his trousers as he gets out his Maserati for a G7 meeting in Paris on Thursday
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Sea-Eye's ship, the Alan Kurdi, in the waters off Libya on Wednesday - it had voyaged to the region to search for 50 migrants missing from Monday and another 40 from the week before
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Migrants packed onto a rubber dinghy are approached by Sea-Eye rescuers on Wednesday as 64 were saved from the Mediterranean
Carlotta Weibl said 'it's a journey of 3-4 weeks. We don't have food and water.'
Weibl said: 'Malta says we can't enter their waters and we are unlikely to get permission from Italy.'
Sea-Eye's ship, the Alan Kurdi, rescued the migrants on Wednesday near Libya.
It did so as it was looking for a boat with 50 migrants missing since Monday and 40 migrants missing since last week.
'The chances are low that they are alive,' Weibl said.
Similar stand-offs in recent months involving rescue ships hoping to reach Italy and Malta were eventually resolved when other EU members agreed to take some of the migrants.
However, many of those people still remain stuck in migrant centres in Malta and Lampedusa.
The Alan Kurdi ship is named after a Kurdish boy who drowned in the sea at the age of three in 2015 as he and his family fled war in Syria.
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Women and children are wrapped in blankets after boarding the rescue ship off the coast of Libya on Wednesday
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A man prays on the deck of the Alan Kurdi after being rescued from the treacherous waters
An image of his small lifeless body prompted an outpouring of sympathy for the plight of migrants.
However, since then the mood in Europe has turned.
Weibl said that at the moment, the Alan Kurdi is the only humanitarian ship operating in the Mediterranean because many governments have denied aid ships the permission to operate.
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