Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Court says Italy illegally barred child migrants

Published:Tuesday | August 13, 2019 | 2:19 PM
In this photo taken Saturday and released Sunday, August. 11, 2019, a rescue team of the Ocean Viking ship, operated by the NGOs Sos Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, helps a person rescued from a rubber dinghy with over 80 migrants off the Libyan coast. (Hannah Wallace Bowman/MSF/Sos Mediterranee via AP)

ROME (AP) — A Spanish aid group says it has asked Italy and Malta to evacuate twin babies and their parents from a rescue ship that has 151 migrants on board and nowhere to disembark them.

Aid group Open Arms said Tuesday that one of the 9-month-old babies has breathing problems.

Italy and Malta have refused to receive the humanitarian ship, which has been seeking authorisation to dock for well over a week.

Also Tuesday, a juvenile court in Sicily ruled that Italian authorities violated national law and international conventions by blocking 28 unaccompanied minors from entering Italy.

Open Arms made the court ruling available and says the children are suffering “physical and mental distress” after enduring “psychological traumas” in Libyan detention camps.

We want to hear from you! Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169, email us at editors@gleanerjm.com or onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com.