A migrant woman gave birth this morning on board the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières ship Geo Barents, which had picked her up in the Mediterranean along with her three sons.
"Despite the happy event, her condition is serious and requires specialised medical care," the organisation said on Twitter, asking the authorities in Malta and Italy to urgently organise the transport of the woman and her children.
The young woman, whose identity was not disclosed, had boarded an "unstable" boat departing from Libya on Monday night with 90 other people. The birth was caused by "the difficult journey, harsh conditions, stress and dehydration", according to MSF.
Geo Barents, the organization's rescue ship, is now carrying 255 migrants who attempted the Mediterranean crossing, which is considered by the UN to be the most dangerous in the world, with 17.000 people have lost their lives since 2014 trying to reach European shores.
Last month, Geo Barents found itself at the centre of a controversy after initially being denied permission to disembark the rescued people it was carrying in an Italian port, excluding the most vulnerable among them. It was finally given the green light, after much protest and criticism, but this was a first indication of the new approach to immigration policy that Italy's far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni intends to take.
Italy has seen a significant increase in migrant arrivals by sea since the beginning of the year, according to figures from the Interior Ministry: since 1 January, 96 migrants have arrived on its shores.816 people, compared to around 63,000 last year and 32,000 in 2020.
Most of these migrants have been rescued by the Italian coastguard, but Rome has strongly criticised rescue operations by ships chartered by various non-governmental organisations.
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