European charity ship rescues 135 migrants but is assigned to distant port in Italy with 359 aboard

ROME (AP) — The European charity ship Ocean Viking says it has rescued another 135 migrants, including a pregnant woman and eight children, from a double-decker boat in Maltese search-and-rescue waters. In total, the vessel operated by the humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee is carrying 359 shipwreck survivors, it said. The group says the ship had been assigned to the distant port at Ancona, in Italy’s central Marche region. “Such a long navigation should never be imposed on persons rescued at sea,” the rescue organization wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, often flee war and poverty in their own countries in search of a better life in European nations via the Mediterranean Sea.