A handout photo made available by the Italian Coast Guard shows a migrant being rescued at sea after diving from the Open Arms ship off the coast of Lampedusa, southern Italy, 20 August 2019 (issued 21 August 2019).
An Italian public prosecutor on 20 August ordered the confiscation of the Spanish NGO rescue ship Open Arms and the immediate evacuation of the migrants on board to the island of Lampedusa after inspecting the vessel. The migrants then disembarked on Lampedusa.
Spain and four other EU states agreed to take in migrants stranded for weeks on the Open Arms rescue ship, EU authorities said on Wednesday, ending a prolonged standoff with the Italian government over their fate.
The around one hundred migrants, picked up from early August onwards in the Mediterranean, had been forced to remain on the crowded Spanish-registered vessel until an Italian prosecutor ordered its seizure and evacuation.
They disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday night, and a European Commission spokeswoman in Brussels said Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal had agreed to take them in.
Photo: EPA-EFE/ITALIAN COAST GUARD HANDOUT
Updated 1020
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