German sailing boat rescues 34 migrants in Mediterranean Sea

Rome (dpa) – A German-registered sailing boat that took aboard 34 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea has docked in port on the island of Lampedusa, the organizers of the rescue mission said late Tuesday.

The 19-metre Nadir boat operated by Hamburg-based ResQship had taken the migrants off two overloaded fibreglass boats.

All 34 migrants, including 15 small children and one heavily pregnant woman, were being cared for on the Italian island.

The organization’s doctor, Gerhard Trabert, reported that a four-year-old child had a fever on board.

ResQship described conditions aboard the small boat as “precarious” as it was primarily suited to observation purposes and reliant on other ships after providing immediate care to the migrants.

The migrants had been aboard the Nadir for more than 30 hours after drifting for 24 hours in the small boats they were rescued from. Many were suffering from hypothermia, the doctor on board said.

Medic Daniel Casingena said the pregnant woman had been in a critical condition aboard the vessel, suffering from severe seasickness, circulation problems and constantly losing consciousness.

ResQship said that Malta, in whose Search and Rescue Zone the two small boats had been drifting, initially refused assistance, as the Nadir is sailing under a German flag.

It added that the German authorities had said they were responsible only for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and that Italy pointed to Maltese obligations, although the Italian island of Lampedusa was the closest safe port for the Nadir.

Separately, the Sea-Watch 3, operated by the Berlin aid organization Sea-Watch, has 412 people aboard and is awaiting an offer of a safe port. “We have a lot of children and young people and people with fuel burns on board,” Sea-Watch tweeted.

The coast guard took three women with injuries ashore later.