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Open Arms says conditions on board too dire to disembark migrants ‘1,000 miles away’
Founder Oscar Camps turns down Spanish government's offer to sail the migrants to the Balearic islands
The Open Arms vessel with 107 migrants on board is anchored off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, southern Italy

THE Spanish government said today that a charity refugee-rescue ship with more than 100 shipwrecked people aboard currently moored off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa could dock in the Balearic islands.

The Open Arms, operated by the Spanish charity of the same name, has been forced to remain at sea without a safe port to disembark the refugees that it rescued 19 days ago from off the Libyan coast.

On Sunday, Spain said the ship could bring the migrants to the southern port of Algeciras but the charity said it was “absolutely unrealistic” to travel that far because of the “humanitarian emergency” on board.

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