(AFP) Italy on Sunday authorised charity vessel Ocean Viking to transfer 180 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to a ship in Sicily for quarantine, the ship’s operator and the government said.
Those on board exploded with joy at the announcement that their ordeal amid the cramped conditions on the Ocean Viking would soon be over, with migrants singing, appluading and taking selfies.
“We have received instructions from the Italian maritime authorities to disembark those on board in Porto Empedocle,” a spokesman for the charity SOS Mediterranee told AFP, which has a correspondent on board.
“We’re very happy! We’ve come a long way, Libya was like hell and now at least we can see the end. I need to tell my family that I’m still alive,” said Rabiul, 27, from Bangladesh.
