Huge waves and strong winds forced a migrant rescue ship caught in a major diplomatic row to take a detour Thursday on its way to Spain, with many aboard suffering from seasickness and shock, a French charity said. Spain agreed to take in the Aquarius vessel, which originally had 629 migrants aboard, after Italy and Malta refused to grant access to their ports for it to dock over weekend.
The rescue ship, run by French charity SOS Mediterranee, has since transferred hundreds of the migrants to two Italian vessels, and the convoy is sailing across the Mediterranean to the Spanish port of Valencia. The charity said Thursday that the Italian coast guard vessel guiding the Aquarius ship had decided to divert the convoy north along the east coast of Sardinia to bypass four-metre (13-feet) high waves and winds of 35 knots (65 km/h).