The Aquarius makes port
More than 600 immigrants rescued at sea by a French NGO arrive in Valencia, among them are unaccompanied children and pregnant women
Nine days after being rescued off the Libyan coast, the 630 immigrants and refugees taken onboard the Aquarius finally arrived yesterday in the port of Valencia in a small flotilla: the Aquarius and two vessels of the Italian navy.
The first of the ships docked at 7 am, with 274 people on boardand wwas met by a 2,300-person contingent of Red Cross professionals, police officers, translators, legal advisors and volunteers, as well as hundreds of journalists from around the world. The Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos, and Health, Carmen Montón were on hand to observe.
Four hours later, the Aquarius arrived, the ship of the French NGO SOS Mediterráneo and Doctors Without Borders that carried out the initial rescue and among the 106 people on board, those most vulnerable, young children and pregnant women. The last ship docked at 1 pm.
The arrivals were attended to by medical and police services within the framework of what the Generalitat Valenciana has dubbed Esperança Mediterrani. Those needing urgent medical care were taken to hospitals in the Valencian capital. The emergency services detected no grave pathologies but “a large number of mild pathologies such as sunburn or general discomfort due to overcrowding.” Finally, only 18 were transferred to hospital centres.
The migrants will have an initial 45-day permit after which normal immigration procedures will take affect. The government has said that the emergency action related to an exceptional circumstance as “They cannot wander around the Mediterranean with an obvious risk of death.”