In the late afternoon of December 1, the search-and-rescue ship Humanity 1 run by SOS Humanity reached the port of Ortona, in Abruzzo, with 85 people on board, including a number of unaccompanied minors. The passengers hailed from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan, among other countries. They were rescued in international waters on November 26 from a wooden double-decker boat that had departed from Libya.

After the ship docked, procedures coordinated by the Prefecture of Chieti were carried out to identify the passengers and to check their medical condition. The migrants were subsequently transferred to different regions as part of a plan ordered by the interior ministry.

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Physical and psychological conditions of survivors critical

The communications coordinator of SOS Humanity Sofia Bifulco said some of the passengers were in dire physical and psychological condition. "Some people had respiratory problems and a high fever and had been given antibiotics already during navigation", she explained. "Many had scabies. Moreover, psychological issues must not be overlooked.

Many said they had endured torture and violence in Libya or in their country of origin. At the moment, we haven't been told yet what the destination of these people will be", she added.

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Controversy over safe port assigned by authorities

As on previous occasions, the rescue ship's crew protested as authorities assigned a port to disembark the migrants which was far away from the rescue area. "We were assigned a safe port at a distance of 1,300 km from the area where we carried out the rescue (operation) at sea", noted Bifulco.

"We arrived after six days of navigation, we also encountered dire weather. We repeatedly asked to change destinations but we were told that we had been assigned Ortona", she added.

The migrants were rescued from a boat whose engine had broken down. They were rescued by the NGO-run ship on November 26. The emergency had first been reported in the Tunisian search-and-rescue zone by Alarm Phone, a hotline for people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea.

The NGO initially reported that it had been assigned the closest port on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa before authorities confirmed that Ortona was its destination.

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