Rescue ship docks in Spain after saving 87 migrants off Libya

An NGO ship which saved 87 migrants in distress off Libya docked in Spain on Thursday after roaming the Mediterranean for days. This is the third such vessel to be allowed in the country in two months after Italy refused to take them in. The ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms arrived in the southern port of San Roque, just over the bay from Gibraltar, at 0720 GMT. The migrants, nearly all from Sudan including Darfur, had spent 50 hours at sea on board an inflatable boat, without drinking water before they were rescued on August 2, AFP reported. The NGO says many of them were “repeatedly abused in Libya.” Spain hastily opened a new migrant reception center in San Roque as hundreds of migrants make the sea crossing to the southern coast of Andalusia every week.