Migrant ship refused access to Italian, Maltese waters: NGO
Rome, June 28: Italy and Malta are refusing to allow a migrant rescue ship operated by award-winning Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms to enter their territorial waters, the NGO tweeted on Thursday.
"Italy and Malta are refusing to allow the ship Open Arms access to their territorial waters. The vessel has saved over 1,000 lives in a year in coordination with the Italian coastguard," read the tweet.
Italy's new populist government is taking a tough stance against charity migrant rescue boats in the Mediterranean and has turned two away from Italian ports this month with hundreds of Africans on board, sparking diplomatic standoffs with European officials.
One of the two boats, operated by the German charity Mission Lifeline, docked in Malta on Wednesday with 230 migrants on board after being stranded at sea for five days.
Malta said it would seize the boat pending an investigation of claims by Italy and Malta that Lifeline flouted international rules by refusing to cooperate with Libyan coastguard. The rescued migrants will be taken in by Malta, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.
Mission Lifeline denies Italy and Malta's claims that it acted illegally and insists that its affairs are in order.
Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the country had no obligation under international law to assist the ship, but was doing so on humanitarian grounds.
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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
