Mediterranean Sea: With 356 rescued migrants on board a humanitarian rescue boat Ocean Viking came to a stand-by position in the waters between Malta and Linosa, a tiny Italian island on Friday.
The Norwegian vessel has plucked the migrants to safety in several rescues in the past few days and is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee.
It was unclear where the Ocean Viking might hope to find a safe port to disembark the migrants.
The migrants on the ship were being reassured that they weren't going back to lawless Libya.
A crew member of SOS Mediterranee said, "We have 356 people on board of the vessel at the moment and they need to be disembarked as soon as possible. Some of them have been at sea for about a week. People are sea-sick. They're being treated for that with the medical team of Medicins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) but there are still some people who are suffering."
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had imposed ban over migrants' boat from entering into the country's waters. Despite offers by Spain and five other European Union nations on Thursday to take in the migrants, whom Salvini doesn't want to accept, it was unclear when or how the standoff will end.
UN workers and migrants have described horrific conditions in overcrowded detention centers in Libya, where migrants are routinely beaten, starved, raped or forced to work as slaves.
The International Organisation for Migration said that more than 39,280 migrants have reached Europe this year from North Africa across the Mediterranean with at least 840 others dying on the journey - numbers that are significantly lower than in previous years.
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