UN refugee agency urges Italy to allow boat to dock

The United Nations refugee agency urged Italy yesterday to allow a ship carrying 37 African shipwreck survivors to land in Sicily after a week of being moored offshore.

The German ship Cap Anamur rescued the people, mostly Sudanese nationals, in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Malta two weeks ago and has dropped anchor off the southern Italian island awaiting permission to dock.

Ron Redmond, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said it was not clear which state had responsibility for the survivors but they should be disembarked as soon as possible on humanitarian grounds.

"Right now they are off the coast of Sicily so that is probably the place we would like them to be taken ashore," he told a news briefing.

UNHCR was in talks with Italian authorities and other parties to try to resolve the situation, he said. Some of the passengers may be refugees or need international protection.

On Thursday, an Italian opposition leader Luciano Violante called for the survivors to be brought ashore and end a week-long stand-off between authorities and the German aid organisation which owns the vessel.

The head of the German refugee aid committee has described the stand-off with the Italian authorities as "grotesque".

Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, who discussed the case with his German counterpart Otto Schily this week, said in a joint statement that international rules must be respected.

"While recognising the delicate humanitarian nature of this case... a request for asylum by the presumed refugees must be presented in the port of first recourse, in this case Malta."

"Any deviation from the rules would set a dangerous precedent and could lead to abuses," the statement said.

The UNHCR gave no information about whether the Cap Anamur attempted to dock in Malta.

Small boats carrying thousands of illegal immigrants regularly sail between North Africa and Italy and many people have died when overcrowded vessels have capsized or sunk.