Italy: Rescue boat with 82 migrants can sail to Italian isle

Italy allowed a charity rescue ship to sail Saturday to a tiny southern island so that 82 migrants aboard could be transferred to shore, but the country's foreign minister cautioned against interpreting the move as a sign the new government is easing a crackdown on humanitarian vessels.

Shortly before midnight, all the migrants had been transferred off the Ocean Viking after several days stranded at sea prior to being given permission to sail to Lampedusa island.

Women, children and unaccompanied minors were put on an Italian coast guard vessel, while men were taken aboard a customs police boat, so all could be brought to Lampedusa's dock.

The Norwegian-flagged ship, which had appealed for days for a port of safety, is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee.

Ocean Viking carried out its first rescue, of 50 migrants who were struggling in an unseaworthy rubber dinghy launched by Libyan-based migrant smugglers, on September 8.

The others were rescued the next day. Among the migrants is a 1-year-old boy from Somalia.

"We just heard that we have been assigned a place of safety, we are now on our way" to Lampedusa, Erkinalp Kesikli of Doctors Without Borders said earlier in the day after the ship received a call from Italian authorities about the permission.

Migrants clapped with joy and excitement.

"We are very happy about the news this morning. It amazes us. This news amazes us," said Myriam Annie Malang, one of the migrants.

"We are arriving at a place where people understand and listen to us. We are very happy to learn that we are disembarking in Lampedusa."
"It was assigned a port because the EU adhered to our request to take the great share of the migrants."
"We have lived through, in the past year, a climate of hysteria whipped up for purely propaganda needs," Loredana De Petris said, referring to Salvini's insistence that Italy not become what he feared would be "Europe's refugee camp."
SOS Mediterranee called Saturday's development "an encouraging signal that several European states, including Italy, have agreed to work together."
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was quoted as telling Saturday's edition of German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that talks are still ongoing "but if everything remains as discussed, we can take 25 per cent of the people rescued from distress at sea who turn up off Italy."