The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) have called for the immediate disembarkation of over 400 rescued migrants and refugees on board three vessels in the central Mediterranean.

Development Diaries understands that a group of some 27 migrants and refugees, including pregnant women and children who departed from Libya, have been on board the commercial vessel, Maersk Etienne, for three weeks since their rescue on 5 August.

‘A commercial tanker cannot be considered a suitable place to keep people in need of humanitarian assistance or those who may need international protection’, the agencies said in a joint statement.

‘Appropriate Covid-19 prevention measures can be implemented once they reach dry land’.

The agencies called for an immediate solution, adding that the ‘rescued refugees and migrants are in urgent need of transfer and disembarkation from the NGO search and rescue vessel Louise Michel’.

‘Any delays could jeopardise the safety of all people on board, including its crew members’, they added.

‘Meaningful solidarity should be expressed through the pledging and implementation of relocation places as well as support for accelerated processing, in line with international standards, to identify persons in need of international protection and those in need of other forms of protection like unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.

‘It is also important to enable swift returns for those who wish to go back to their countries of origin and for those who are found not in need of international or other forms of protection’.

Source: UNHCR

Photo source: Jose Jordan/STR/AFP