AFM evacuates pregnant migrant from rescue ship

A nine-month pregnant woman, along with her husband were evacuated to Malta from the NGO migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking on Wednesday afternoon after the woman developed complications. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Armed Forces of Malta said its rescue coordination centre received a request to medically evacuate a pregnant female migrant who required urgent medical attention. Subsequently, AFM dispatched an AW139 helicopter to the vessel to evacuate the woman. She was then brought to Air Wing Base and handed over to the awaiting medical team. 

The Ocean Viking, operated by SOS Mediterranee, are also seeking a safe harbour for another 83 migrants on board.

The NGO said that the Libyan maritime authorities have assigned it a port where it could disembark the migrants, however, it did not consider Libya to be safe. 

"We have requested an alternative that meets the requirements of international law,” the NGO wrote to social media. 

Onboard the vessel, some of the migrants, include 12 children, who were rescued off the Libyan coast on Sunday, as well as 34 migrants who were transferred to the ship from the sailboard Josefa during the storm on Monday night, some 60 nautical miles off the Libyan coast.

Earlier on Tuesday, five migrants rescued by the Alan Kurdi were also brought to Malta to be transferred to other countries.