As Aquarius heads to Spain, the 629 migrants on board the boat continue to endure difficult conditions with limited space, food and water.
_Euronews’ Anelise Borges, the only TV journalist on board the ship, provides the latest: _
“For some of the member of the teams who are here, providing medical assistance and care to the people on board this is – and I quote – “a crazy idea”. MSF and SOS Mediterranean have been asking Italian authorities, urging Italian authorities to establish a more accessible port. We spoke to Doctors Without Borders about their concerns for the safety of the people on board.”
Aloys Vimard, an MSF Coordinator, said: “We have to make sure that there will be appropriate medical care on board those ships, human resources, people who will speak the same language in order to understand the complaints, medical supply, food. Today we received food from Italian authorities, but it is absolutely not enough to be safe at sea and undertake this journey.”
Nicola Stalla, an SOS Mediterranean Coordinator said: “We have to make adequate information to all these people, so that they know what is going to happen over the next hours and for the forthcoming voyage – in order to have all the people aware of what the situation is and to maintain the adequate control over the ship. The trip with the number of people that Aquarius will have after the transhipment in the best case can take up to 3.5 days.”
Our reporter, Anelise Borges says: “For the people aboard Aquarius this will mean even a longer wair. And they have already been at sea for over 3 day now. And prior to that their journey has been a very difficult one. The majority of the passengers here have gone through Lybia. They have travelled through Lybia where the conditions were absolutely dire. They speak about abuse, they speak about violence. I talked to one Aquarius passenger, a woman from Nigeria who told me what she went through.”
A pregnant woman, who didn’t give her name, told Anelise: “We were locked into a room. Bad men come inside to work you, just like a slave for them. I ran away. There were like 300 girls in a particular place. They all ran away. They threatened, “I’ll blow your head with a gun”. We ran away.”
Anelise: “What do you hope Europe will bring to your life?
Woman: “I was hoping, God give me the grace, I have my baby. I start working. I can send some money down for them to survive. Right now, there is no money. I studied law. I want to help. I want to stop Boko Haram. I want to become a lawyer. I want to go down there and stop them, stop killing people.”