The European Commission said today that it is contact with a number of member states to identify a country willing to take 141 migrants picked up by a rescue ship, after the French groups operating the ship appealed for a safe port and Italy said Britain should take responsibility.
Doctors Without Borders, which operates the ship Aquarius along with SOS Mediterranee, said that the health of those rescued in two operations Friday was stable but many were weak and malnourished.
One of the smugglers' boats, a small wooden boat with 25 migrants, appeared to have been at sea for nearly 35 hours, the groups said.
Most of the 141 migrants were from Somalia and Eritrea and they include 67 unaccompanied minors.
Italy continues to refuse port to humanitarian rescue ships, and the country's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, said on Twitter that Britain should take responsibility for the migrants aboard the Aquarius because it sails under the flag of the British territory of Gibraltar.
Toninelli said the rescue was coordinated by Libyan authorities and that the ship was in Maltese waters.
EU Commission spokeswoman Tove Ernst said in Brussels that the commission was in touch with member states to find a solution, but she couldn't say how many states were involved in the talks since the situation was changing.
She said that "it could of course be the case that in theory a flag state of a rescue ship could be considered a potential location for disembarkation, but this might not be possible in practice."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content