180 migrants onboard Ocean Viking aid ship will disembark in Sicily

The 180 migrants on the Ocean Viking aid ship will arrive in Porto Empedocle on Monday, where they will be transferred onto another ship, the Moby Zaza, and placed in quarantine.

Euronews reports that before their arrival, they will all be tested for coronavirus.

The migrants were rescued by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée between June 25 and 30. There are 25 children and a pregnant woman among them.

France 24 reports that “a medical team sent by authorities in Pozzallo, Sicily “ascertained the absence of particular health problems and also reported that some tensions that had been registered on the ship are being overcome”, the ministry source said.

The medical team is testing the migrants for the Covid-19 virus after which they will be transferred to a quarantine ship currently in Porto Empedocle, also in Sicily. “The situation is carefully monitored in view of the transhipment of migrants, scheduled for Monday 6 July, on the Moby Zaza ship,” the source said.

The Ocean Viking, which has been in limbo in the Mediterranean south of Sicily, has been waiting for permission from Italy or Malta to offload the migrants at a safe port. Tensions have risen in the past week, as witnessed by an AFP reporter aboard the boat, as migrants have become increasingly desperate to reach land. Others have become distraught not being able to telephone their families to let them know they were safe.

Euronews / France 24