Catania (Italy) (AFP) - More than 200 migrants who have been waiting aboard a rescue ship after Italy refused them entry were allowed to come ashore Tuesday, as another vessel gave up hope and appealed to France for safe harbour.
Nearly 500 migrants have been in limbo after being rescued by three different charity ships last month during their perilous crossing from North Africa to Italy's shores.
But on Tuesday night, one of the ships, the Geo Barents, began disembarking the more than 200 migrants on board after Italian health authorities gave them the green light.
"My life is back!" shouted one of the migrants as they started to disembark in Sicily's eastern port of Catania, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operates the vessel.
Both the Geo Barents and Humanity 1, run by non-governmental group SOS Humanity, docked at the weekend in Catania, disembarking about 500 of the most vulnerable migrants.
But Italian authorities denied entry to approximately 250 others and told the ships to return to sea with them on board, a directive both groups rejected.
Thirty-three migrants remain on Humanity 1.
A third ship, the Ocean Viking, said Tuesday it was leaving Sicilian waters and heading towards France with 234 migrants on board after its appeals to Italy since October 27 to dock had gone unanswered.
"Facing the silence of Italy and the exceptionality of the situation, the Ocean Viking has now escalated her request for a place of safety in France," said the group, run by European charity SOS Mediterranee under a Norwegian flag.
"We expect the Ocean Viking to arrive in international waters close to Corsica (on) the 10th of November."
'Selective and discriminatory'
The handling of the ships is a first test for Italy's new far-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who land on the country's shores every year.
Earlier Tuesday, a fourth boat successfully disembarked all its 89 migrants at the port of Reggio Calabria at the toe of Italy.
The migrants from the Rise Above, operated by German humanitarian group Mission Lifeline, were "almost all minors", a government source explained to AFP.
Rights groups have challenged an Italian decree that permitted the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 to dock only for the time it took to help emergency migrant cases, calling it illegal.
SOS Mediterranee said on Tuesday the choice of which migrants to allow onto Italian soil was "selective and discriminatory".
Italy's decision to allow the migrants aboard the Geo Barents to leave the ship came after rising psychological strain on the migrants, charity groups said.
"Their anxiety grows every day," MSF's chief of mission, Juan Matias Gil, told reporters at the port.
On Monday, migrants held an impromptu protest from the stern of the Geo Barents, holding up signs and chanting "Help us"!
Two Syrians jumped into the water and were pulled out, and then spent the night on the dock, MSF said.
"They spent the entire night in the open on the pier refusing water and food this morning," the charity said.
Exhaustion and worse
Migrants allowed to disembark from the Rise Above Tuesday were suffering from seasickness and exhaustion, Mission Lifeline said, while six people had been evacuated earlier after being deemed medical emergencies.
Ships chartered by humanitarian organisations regularly pick up migrants from overcrowded boats seeking to cross from North Africa to Europe that are in distress.
But their passengers account for only 14 percent of the more than 87,000 people who have landed in Italy so far this year, the interior ministry says.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Monday the government is acting "with humanity but firmly based on our principles".
Piantedosi said he was working at a national and European Union level to reduce the burden on Italy after years of complaints from Rome that the bloc was not doing enough.
