Italy refuses refugees, sends humanitarian aid to Turkish ship

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

refid:11465138 ilişkili resim dosyası

Italy sent urgent supplies of food, blankets and a doctor to the ship, "Pinar," by helicopter.

The ship’s captain made a desperate plea for help after food and water supplies aboard the ship ran out on Saturday.

“We have no food and water left. We fear there will be rioting,” Hurriyet daily reported the ship’s captain, Taygun Asik, as saying.

According to reports, the rescued migrants are in poor health, a 16 year-old girl is in a critical condition, and a pregnant woman died despite efforts from the crew to save her life.

The ship is in international waters between Malta and Italy. Italy has said that Malta should take the migrants, but AP reported that Malta said the ship was closer to the Italian island of Lampedusa than to Malta.

A diplomatic crisis erupted over the vessel and its cargo of illegal immigrants after Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Malta should accept the migrants since they were rescued off Malta.

The ship has been waiting in the Italian port of Lampedusa as neither Malta nor Italy have agreed to accept the African refugees.

The United Nations refugee agency urged that the refugees be allowed to land. “Before resolving the legal issues, they should first be allowed to disembark for humanitarian first aid at the closest and safest port,” the New York Times reported Marie-Ange Lescure, a spokeswoman for the agency in Paris, as saying.