ROME: Italy has agreed to accept more than 500 migrants from two rescue ships at sea off its coast after a separate ship carrying 33 migrants capsized on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.
According to MSF, the Doctors Without Borders organization and the Gio Barents ship carrying 248 migrants have been directed to dock at the port of Salerno on the southern Italian mainland.
MSF appreciated this option, despite the fact that it would take more than 24 hours to arrive from its current location off the east coast of Sicily.
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After a harrowing experience, there is finally some good news for all the survivors after having a safe place to land, MSF wrote on Twitter.
The challenge for Italy's new right-wing government, which has pledged to take a tougher stance on immigration, is how to respond to aid requests from charity ships plying the Mediterranean.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said "each case is unique" in reference to the NGO ships, speaking on the sidelines of the Euro-Mediterranean summit in the Spanish city of Alicante.
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He confirmed that Salerno would receive at least one vessel for docking.
Italian media reported that SOS Humanities Humanity 1, another vessel, would be allowed to dock at the port of Bari in the southeast of Puglia. The ship was carrying 261 rescued people, including more than 90 minors and about 30 women, some of whom were pregnant.
A spokesperson for SOS Humanity was not immediately available for comment. MSF reported that a 14-year-old boy who was traveling alone was airlifted from Geo Barents to Sicily after first experiencing severe abdominal pain.
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On Wednesday a baby boy was born on the same ship, and his mother, three siblings, and him were later taken to Sicily. Migrants aboard the ship anchored in Lampedusa were taken aboard the Louise Michel rescue ship two days before they were rescued from a small wooden boat in the Mediterranean Sea.
Lewis Mitchell's handlers said in a tweet that "permission to enter Lampedusa was granted at the last minute because (the) weather was deteriorating dangerously".