German Rescue Boat with 800 Migrants Reaches Sicilian Port

Members of Italian Guardia Costiera prepare to bring on board the migrants of a wooden boat near the island of Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Juan Medina
Members of Italian Guardia Costiera prepare to bring on board the migrants of a wooden boat near the island of Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Juan Medina
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German Rescue Boat with 800 Migrants Reaches Sicilian Port

Members of Italian Guardia Costiera prepare to bring on board the migrants of a wooden boat near the island of Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Juan Medina
Members of Italian Guardia Costiera prepare to bring on board the migrants of a wooden boat near the island of Lampedusa, in the Mediterranean Sea, September 1, 2021. REUTERS/Juan Medina

A German humanitarian ship with more than 800 rescued migrants, including 15 very young children, steamed into a Sicilian port on Sunday after being granted permission by Italian authorities following days of waiting in the Mediterranean Sea.

The charity group Sea-Eye said the vessel Sea-Eye 4 was assigned to the port of Trapani, in western Sicily, on Saturday evening. Most of the adults were to be transferred to other ships for preventative quarantine against COVID-19, while some 160 minors, including babies and other children younger than 4, were to be taken to shelters on land.

Many of the passengers came from countries in West Africa, Egypt or Morocco, said Giovanna di Benedetto, an official from Save the Children in Italy.

Shouts of joy from those aboard Sea-Eye 4 could be heard on Trapani's dock as the vessel drew near, SkyTG24 TV reported.

About half of the migrants were rescued from a sinking wooden boat on Nov. 4, while the other passengers had been plucked to safety from the sea in separate operations, The Associated Press said.

Sea-Eye officials had lamented that Malta, a European Union island nation in the central Mediterranean, hadn’t responded to the wooden boat’s distress signal in the Maltese search-and-rescue area.

Meanwhile, another charity ship, Ocean Viking, with 308 migrants aboard, was still awaiting assignment of a port near Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island south of Sicily.

The humanitarian organization SOS Mediterranee, which operates Ocean Viking, tweeted that its team on Friday night was involved in a search for a boat in distress south of Lampedusa. The charity tweeted that the Italian Coast Guard “eventually coordinated and completed the rescue requesting the assistance” of Ocean Viking.

Separately, the coast guard, working in rough seas, had evacuated two persons, along with four family members, from the Ocean Viking for medical treatment, including for burns, SOS Mediterranee said.

On Saturday, Sea-Eye 4 received a delivery of food and blankets while it waited to learn where the migrants could set food on land. Doctors aboard Sea-Eye 4 had treated 25 people for hypothermia, sea sickness and high blood pressure, along with injuries consistent with torture.



Chinese Navy Helicopter Flies within 10 Feet of Philippine Patrol Plane Over Disputed Shoal 

A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
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Chinese Navy Helicopter Flies within 10 Feet of Philippine Patrol Plane Over Disputed Shoal 

A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)

A Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet (3 meters) of a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday in a disputed area of the South China Sea, as the Filipino pilot warned by radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.”

The helicopter was attempting to force a Cessna Caravan turbo-prop plane belonging to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources out of what China claims is its airspace over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines.

An Associated Press journalist and other invited foreign media representatives on the plane witnessed the tense 30-minute standoff as the Philippine plane pressed on with its low-altitude patrol around Scarborough with the Chinese navy helicopter hovering close above it or flying to its left in cloudy weather.

“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and endangering the lives of our crew and passengers,” the Philippine pilot told the Chinese navy helicopter by radio at one point. “Keep away and distance your aircraft from us, you are violating the safety standard set by FAA and ICAO.”

The pilot was referring to the standard distance between aircraft required by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disasters.

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries said in a statement that they remain “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China.”

They referred to the Philippine name for the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Philippines’ western coast.

Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, but in past encounters they have steadfastly asserted China's sovereign rights over the Scarborough and surrounding waters and warned that its forces would protect the country's territorial interests at all costs.

Tuesday's encounter, which is expected to be protested by the Philippine government, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long territorial standoff in one of the world’s busiest trade routes, which involves China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Confrontations on the high seas have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guards in the last two years at Scarborough, a traditional fishing area, and the Second Thomas Shoal, where a grounded Philippine navy ship has served as a territorial outpost since 1999 but has since been closely watched by Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships.

China deployed its coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships around Scarborough after a tense standoff with Philippine ships in 2012.

The following year, the Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration. A 2016 decision by a United Nations-backed arbitration panel invalidated China’s expansive claim in the South China Sea based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China, a signatory to the UNCLOS like the Philippines, refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected its outcome and continues to defy it.