(Reuters) – Germany is in talks with Rome about the fate of rescued migrants who were stranded on a German-flagged charity vessel off the Italian coast and wants them to be given permission to disembark, a spokesperson said on Monday.
The vessel had refused to leave the Sicilian port of Catania on Sunday, after Italian authorities said not all the migrants it was carrying could disembark, the NGO responsible for the vessel said.
Rome said minors and people in need of urgent medical care, in total 144 of 179 passengers, could disembark from Humanity 1, which had been permitted to dock in Catania.
Humanity 1 and two other vessels – carrying between them almost 1,000 migrants – had been at sea off Italy for more than a week awaiting permission to dock from the country’s right-wing government that took office last month.
“Fundamentally … civilian sea rescues must not be prevented. It is our moral and legal obligation not to let people drown,” a government spokesperson told a briefing.
(Reporting by Matthias Williams; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
