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AFP
Palma, Spain
Two vessels of a Spanish NGO involved in rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean arrived in the Spanish port of Palma on Saturday carrying a woman found drifting on a deflated dinghy off Libya as well as the bodies of a boy and another woman.
The two ships of Proactiva Open Arms were escorted to the port of the capital of the Balearic island of Majorca by a Spanish police ship at 7:15 am.
The rescued woman is a 40-year-old from Cameroon named Josepha. Proactiva said it transported her to Spain -- where the Spanish Red Cross received her -- for her"protection"and to enable her to testify freely.
Italy had earlier offered to take in the woman but not the bodies, telling the Spaniards that the Libyan coastguard was in charge of the rescue operation. Proactiva accuses Libyan coastguards of having saved the rest of the migrants on board the dinghy but not the two women and the child, whom they say refused to board the rescue vessel and go back to Libya.
The NGO alleges that as a result, the coastguards left them and deflated the dinghy. Rescuers let air out of migrants'boats to stop them from being re-used and this boat had been slashed with a knife. Proactive Open Arms's director Oscar Camps, who said Josepha remained in a state of shock, said he and the NGO were appalled at the logistical difficulties facing rescuers.
"We are indignant, we once again condemn the policies being followed in the central Mediterranean, not just by one government but by several. The difficulties we have faced to save one life are just incredible,"Camps told a news conference.
