Group picked up by NGO boat disembarks in Lampedusa

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 9 - A group of 33 asylum seekers picked up at sea by the Louise Michel, a search-and-rescue (SAR) boat run by a German NGO, disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa overnight.
    The group of 33 Egyptian asylum seekers said that they departed from Sabratha, in Libya, on December 6, sources said.
    Louise Michel said the 33 were saved from a small wooden vessel that was in distress.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni's government has taken a hard line with NGO-run search-and-rescue ships since taking office in October.
    The government has frequently refused to offer a port of safety to these vessels and the recent case of the Ocean Viking, which ended up docking Toulon, caused considerable tension between Rome and Paris.
    At the time of writing two NGO-run ships carrying over 500 asylum seekers, the Geo Barents and the Humanity 1, were waiting to be assigned a port of safety.
    Women and unaccompanied minors were among these people. (ANSA).