Captain of Lebanese cargo ship carrying 52 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean says food and water are running out.
A Lebanese cargo ship carrying 52 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean has been denied access to Italy and Malta, forcing its captain to accommodate the stranded people in the vessel’s dirty cattle cages.
“I am running out of food and water to give them,” said Mohammad Shaaban, the captain of the Talia, the ship used for transporting livestock that on Friday rescued the migrants from a sinking dinghy heading from Libya to Europe, in a phone interview with Al Jazeera.
“This is a place for animals, not for humans. Malta, Italy, or even Spain must take these people, I am not a government agency, the company cannot bear more losses,” he said.
Most of the Talia’s passengers are from Somalia and Djibouti, and many need urgent medical care after surviving war in Libya and enduring five days at sea, according to Shaaban.
On Sunday, Malta’s armed forces allowed the medical evacuation of two people from the Talia, but refused to take others.
One of the stranded migrants, 16-year-old Yaakouba Barry, said he was jailed for 14 months in an unofficial prison in the Libyan city of Bani Walid, where he was tortured in an attempt to extort a ransom from his family.
“My father is dead and my mother is an old woman who owns nothing. I thought they would kill me because I couldn’t pay”, Barry told Al Jazeera.
He said he was eventually released without paying a ransom, transported to the coast inside a freezer truck, and put on a dinghy that left Libya on Wednesday night.
Early on Friday, the engine stopped working and the boat started to sink.
A plane operated by the German humanitarian NGO Sea Watch spotted it hours later, 30 nautical miles (55km) off the Italian island of Lampedusa, and sent out an SOS signal to ships in the area, as well as informing state authorities.
The Talia, headed towards Spain after delivering livestock in Libya, changed its course and proceeded to the rescue in coordination with Malta.
