After two weeks stranded at sea and battered by winter storms, migrants onboard a rescue ship are growing frustrated, supplies are dwindling and the crew are exhausted as European countries refuse to offer a safe port of call. Another German humanitarian group, Sea-Eye, is also in waters off Malta with 17 people rescued on December 29 on board its ship. Until June last year, Italy took in almost all of the migrants rescued by humanitarian groups, but since then the new populist government’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has closed the ports to rescue ships. In recent months Spain and Malta have agreed to take in some rescued migrants, but often not before long negotiations with other EU countries. As a consequence, most humanitarian groups have abandoned sea rescue efforts.

Source: Hindustan Times January 04, 2019 14:15 UTC