ANSA: 42 migrants rescued, shots fired at ‘Louise Michel’ ship

Italian news agency ANSA reported that 42 migrants arrived at the Italian port of Crotone after being rescued by the ‘Louise Michel’, a vessel operated by a German NGO in the central Mediterranean, following an alert about a rubber boat in distress between the Libyan and Maltese search-and-rescue zones.

The agency said the vessel came under fire just hours before reaching Italy while attempting to rescue migrants aboard another boat after two people fell overboard. A Libyan Bigliani-class patrol boat reportedly approached the Louise Michel in international waters.

According to ANSA, the crew of the Libyan patrol boat fired two shots toward the Louise Michel. No members of the NGO crew were injured. The vessel was unable to complete the rescue operation, while the patrol boat returned the occupants of the rubber boat to Libya.

ANSA added that the Libyan patrol boat involved in the incident had been donated by Italy in 2017, noting that the incident occurred only hours before the Louise Michel reached the port of Crotone.

The agency said the 42 migrants rescued by the Louise Michel in a separate operation were mostly from Somalia and included 14 women. Two of the women were taken to hospital for further medical examinations, including one who was pregnant.

The vessel was about 150 miles from Syracuse when the rescue took place, before Italian authorities assigned Crotone as its safe port, nearly 400 miles away. This required the crew and the rescued migrants to make an additional journey lasting nearly two days.