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IRELAND IS AMONG six EU countries who have agreed to take in people stranded on a rescue ship in the Mediterranean.
This announcement comes after a two-week stand-off again exposed the failure of European leaders to quickly deal with desperate people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa.
The Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking, run by charities MSF and SOS Mediterranee, had been seeking a port after rescuing four boats of migrants off the Libyan coast between 9 and 12 August.
356 migrants were aboard the ship.
After talks with the European Commission, Malta agreed its navy would transfer the people to the island but said they would not be allowed to stay.
They will be relocated to other member states, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted.
He listed destination countries as Ireland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania.
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke by phone today to the Maltese prime minister to confirm that Ireland will take a small number of migrants from the Ocean Viking.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said that Ireland will take up up to 100 asylum seekers during the remainder of 2019.
“As a gesture of solidarity with member states involved in the disembarkation of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, Ireland has in recent months offered to relocate a number of asylum seekers from Italy and Malta,” the Department said.
On arrival in Ireland, their asylum applications are processed by the International Protection Office, according to the Department. They will also be included in the numbers admitted under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme.
“Up to now, requests for assistance have been responded to on a case-by-case basis. To provide greater certainty to the process, the Minister has decided to accept the relocation of up to 100 asylum seekers during the remainder of the year,” the Department said.
“This figure takes account of the extremely tight accommodation situation that currently exists while at the same time showing solidarity with our EU colleagues.”
Food running out
Rescue charities have been scathing of the lack of coordination and solidarity among EU member states in dealing with migration standoffs over the past years, with tens of thousands of people making the perilous trip across the Mediterranean.
“We are relieved this long ordeal for the 356 people we have on board is finally over. Was it necessary to impose two weeks of excruciating wait for rescued people to be disembarked?” said Jay Berger, MSF’s project coordinator onboard the Ocean Viking.
“This 14-day standoff of the Viking Ocean was shocking,” Frederic Penard, director of operations at SOS Mediterranee, said in a statement.
We hope that the ad hoc solution implemented today will transform into the predictable and sustainable disembarkation mechanism promised many times by several European Union member states.
The charity said the Ocean Viking would now change crews, refuel and be resupplied before heading back to Libyan waters.
The boat had been denied entry to dock by both Malta and Italy and is just the latest in a string of migrant ship standoffs.
Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has repeatedly insisted that rescued migrants can only land in Italy if other EU countries take them in.
As a political crisis plays out in Rome following the breakup of the coalition government, Salvini tweeted that he had been vindicated.
“As promised, we did not give the 356 migrants on the Ocean Viking permission to disembark in Italy. The safety of Italians comes first!” he wrote.
Fleeing conflict
Most of the migrants on the Ocean Viking are adult men.
About two-thirds come from Sudan, with others from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal.
Four women and five young children, aged one to six, are also aboard.
Almost a hundred are under the age of 18.
The French government said it would take in 150 of those aboard.
Many were rescued from Libyan waters suffering from severe dehydration and sometimes borderline malnutrition, the boat’s medical team has said.
They have told stories of fleeing conflict-torn Libya to escape ill treatment, arbitrary detention and sometimes torture.
MSF tries to ensure those rescued eat at least one hot dish a day, as well as providing cereal bars, protein biscuits and tea.
With limited water, those aboard are restricted to three-minute showers twice per week.
Includes reporting by © – AFP 2019 and Christina Finn
Good luck to her. Hopefully some of the other finalists get a chance to launch their ideas as well
It must be awkward carrying that big phone.
People tend to use the same GP because patient history is one of the most important diagnostic elements. Will this be a problem for her model?
It maybe I’ve just been watching too much House…
Ignoreland…..perhaps the patients history could be put into a database and be accessed by the patient using a P.I.N?
For a country the size of Ireland, it should be possible to network the whole system. If I have an injury in donegal then it should be possible for them to access my records even though I’m based in the Midlands.
Email should be a given instead of slow mail when gp’s are writing a referral. Plus text message reminders for out patient appointments.
It’s more complicated than you would imagine to have digital health records.
Way to go girl, good on you great idea
Well done to her. I hope she focuses on Ireland though, not just Dublin.
Best idea I’ve heard of since Google! Go girl!
Who gives out these awards? No website, no App, only an idea. This idea will die in the crib. Taxi drivers in UK are trying to make Uber and Halo illegal. Trying to do the same thing in the medical industry (a hugely regulated industry with powerful unions) is stupid. This lady will be eaten for breakfast. Might work in medical areas that are not regulated, like Chinese medicine. Saying “you go girl” without thinking critically about the idea is really patronising to her.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish we lived in a world where this app would be successful. I am no lover of unions and government regulations, but a business has to work in the real world
i think the idea of the compeition is to win funds to develop,test, launch so those end user products will come. never put the cart before the horse. having an app and a website before having a solid idea with promise never really works, your app and website just sits there doing nothing. i’m sure she has a rough visual prototype, presentation etc of how it works to pitch with.
having said that, i do see problems with the idea itself. GPs as we all know are expensive, “more business for GPs” – cry me a river, canceled appointments is of no loss to GPs, patients reschedule and in many cases theres a cancel fee. Would it mean triple travel expenses for call out fees? A travel expense in GPs terms could be a taxi fare x 3. There are approx 2million medical and GP-visit cards in use here as well. How does it cater for them, and with regarding travel fees. I don’t think the HSE will pay for it no more than old age free travel covers taxi fares. So, back to private customers. If they can afford it then great then thats her target market. I think the fees involved, how many ‘private users’ will sign up for it and of course access to medical records, data security and release of said data would ideas for the app to overcome.
@Alan From an acorn can grow a mighty oak. Ideas are everything.
@patrick, ideas and nothing, implementation is everything. Google didn’t come up with the idea of a search engine, Microsoft didn’t come up with the idea of a computer operating system. Implementation is everything
We need the same for Doctors. I couldn’t even find a reliable site by googling. Doctor app please together with consultancy fee. Thank you.
Good luck to her. I hope that this proposed alternative delivery of healthcare is not a platform for inexperienced professionals (who can’t work in the health system due to recruitment embargo of past few years) to get work. My issue with this is that for some patients who are vulnerable – they may be paying for a service that isn’t top quality. Finally, I look forward to the other 23 applicants proposals to be reported by the journal.
This young lady and her ingenious click clinic app has possibly doubled or trebled the market for the medical professionals offering those services.
Disruptive technology at its most effective!
Well done to her!
Good on ye lass hope it gets taken on.
Is disruptive the new “in-word”?
Have seen this of Twitter and as a fellow physio I see flaws in the business model!! Already websites like what clinic and generally find its more cost effective to invest in google Seo on our own website! But u know what folks fair play to her she is pushing an idea she has into reality!! How many of us have had ideas and never done anything about them!!! My wee bit of advice if the young lady does read this is under promise and over deliver!!
I always worry when I see words like ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘health’ used in the same sentence. That immediately puts me off. But good luck to her and the others too with their inventions.
Unfortunately it’s a zero sum game. There will always be people waiting as long as the health service is understaffed. In fact, it seems unfair that the young tech-savvy people with the app are going to get treatment faster than, and possibly at the expense of, the older people
Well done and best of luck with the idea!
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