The humantiarian ship ResqPeople has docked at the Sicilian port of Augusta (Siracusa) with 166 migrants aboard, including women and children. Meanwhile another ship run by Doctors without Borders (MSF) with 322 rescuees aboard is still waiting to be granted a safe port.
"The ResqPeople just docked at the port of Augusta," the organization tweeted on Wednesday, August 18, sharing a photo of the ship's arrival at port.
The last three rescue operations by the Italian NGO took place on August 15, when it rescued dozens of migrants from three small boats, including women and "children under five and one nine months." The ResQ People ship began its mission on August 7.
Italy granted a port
On Tuesday evening Italy granted authorization to ResqPeople to enter the Sicilian port, after Cecilia Strada sent yet another appeal for a place to disembark the people.
Strada, taking part in the NGO's rescue mission on the ResQ People, is the daughter of Gino Strada, founder of the NGO Emergency that provides free medical treatment to victims of wars, landmines and poverty. Gino Strada died on August 13.
"Why are we moved by the victims so long as they are far away -- or already dead -- but when they are 15 miles from the coast or still alive we leave them to their fate? I ask for 166 people who are waiting for a safe port on the ResqPeople," the activist tweeted on Tuesday.
Cecilia Strada was aboard the ship when her father died. "While my dad Gino Strada was passing away, I was doing this thing here", she wrote on social media on August 14, posting a video of a rescue made by the ship ResqPeople, the first completed by the expedition, on the very day of the death of the founder of Emergency, to whom the rescue was dedicated.
"One life left, 84 lives came aboard. In safety. And it seems like a good way to say goodbye to him. Ciao daddy. Good wind, calm sea," she wrote.
Awaiting a port for MSF
Meanwhile, the ship Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is in the Mediterranean and still waiting to be granted a safe port. There are 322 people aboard the ship who were rescued in various operations in recent days, including many children and a two-week-old newborn, who was rescued during an operation that saved people from two boats adrift on the night of August 16.
Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the IOM's coordination office for the Mediterranean, tweeted an appeal for the Geo Barents on Wednesday.
"The ResqPeople has arrived in Augusta, and is to be thanked for having saved 166 lives. Now MSF's Geo Barents has 322 people aboard, and we hope it will have a safe port soon. Saving the lives of those who flee a country where they suffer abuse and violence must remain a priority for all," Di Giacomo tweeted.