ABOARD THE OCEAN VIKING: A charity rescue boat with 82 migrants aboard says it has been given permission to dock at a tiny Italian island.
Ocean Viking’s crew said Saturday that Italian authorities instructed the ship to sail to Lampedusa island. The Ocean Viking, which had appealed for days for a port of safety, is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee.
It isn’t clear if Italy’s new government is softening its anti-migrant policy. The previous coalition banned charity boats from bringing migrants to Italy.
Fifty of those aboard were rescued on Sept. 8 from human traffickers’ flimsy rubber dinghy launched from Libya. Thirty-four other migrants were rescued the next day in the Mediterranean. A woman about to give birth and her husband were taken to Malta earlier in the week.
