Doctors Without Frontiers (MSF) said Wednesday that the Geo Barents, a search-and-rescue ship that the medical-aid NGO operates in the Mediterranean, has 237 asylum seekers on board after it conducted its third rescue of the last few days.
It said 107 people, including 36 minors and five women, were
picked up from a overloaded dinghy in the latest operation.
The Italian government is trying to discourage NGO-run
migrant-rescue ships and, according to a new code of conduct
passed by it, they must immediately request the authorities
assign them a port of safety after making a rescue, rather than
staying at sea to help other people.
The government has also started to allocate ports of safety to
the NGO ships that are some distance from their position after
making the rescues.
The Geo Barents has been told to go to the northern port of La
Spezia.
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