130 migrants rescued from Italian coast

STORY: On Tuesday (January 24), the vessel, operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), picked up 69 migrants south of Malta, including 9 women and 25 minors, and was told to go to the northern port of La Spezia.

While heading north on Wednesday (January 25), the MSF team received a distress alert by Alarm Phone and saved other 61 migrants - including 13 women and 24 minors, the youngest one being less than 1- year old - from an overcrowded rubber boat in distress in international waters near Libya.

The Geo Barents, which is currently carrying 237 migrants onboard, is heading towards La Spezia, the furthest and northernmost destination that Italy has assigned to an NGO ship.

This month, the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, told other vessels to reach Livorno in Tuscany, and the eastern Adriatic ports of Ancona and Ravenna.

Until recently, these ships would usually have been made to dock on Lampedusa island or other Sicilian locations.