Sharjah24 – AFP: Italy on Saturday agreed to let 800 migrants including hundreds of minors and five pregnant women disembark after they were stuck at sea aboard an overcrowded vessel.
German charity Sea Eye said it had received permission to dock at Trapani in Sicily, just hours after a fellow charity delivered it urgently needed relief supplies, including food and blankets.
The Sea Eye 4 ship had already been carrying nearly 400 people pulled to safety at sea when it raced to the rescue of another 400 people crowded onto a wooden boat on Thursday.
Since then it had been appealing to the government in Rome to allow it to dock.
There were over 200 minors, including "many children under the age of 10" on board, the NGO said in a statement. More than 200 people had been treated at the onboard hospital.
The Ocean Viking, a charity vessel run by SOS Mediterranee, was also looking for a port for over 300 people it has rescued, bringing the number of migrants seeking to disembark in Italy to over 1,100.
The country is one of the main points of entry into Europe for migrants from North Africa, mainly from Libya and Tunisia, with tens of thousands of people seeking to cross the central Mediterranean each year.
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