Flashquote: 182 people stranded onboard search and rescue boat Ocean Viking

Flashquote from Erkinalp Kesikli, Project Coordinator on board Ocean Viking:

“The decision to transfer just 35 out of the 217 survivors onboard Ocean Viking is another shameful demonstration of the EU's inhumane migration policies. European leaders have used rescued people as political pawns while they bargain and agree on their redistribution and relocation.

Despite recent signs of hope, European bureaucracy and petty reasoning have once again been valued over the safety and well-being of vulnerable men, women, children and even a newborn baby, who have been denied their right to be disembarked swiftly after surviving violence in Libya, and the deadly crossing of the Mediterranean.

It is a mockery that the only destination proposed for the rescued people has been Libya, the same country from which they were fleeing, and where they have endured horrific treatment.

Despite a meeting scheduled in Valetta on Monday, where it seemed that European leaders were on the verge of reversing policies that have cost countless lives in the Mediterranean, today they again failed to demonstrate any real moral and honest commitment to the fate of people rescued at sea.

182 people on board the Ocean Viking are waiting to be assigned a place of safety without further delay.”