The story of the boy who was born on a salvage ship in the Mediterranean

“I had a lot of stress on the boat. I was panicking that I will have the baby”…
A healthy baby was born last Monday, the rescue ship Aquarius of the organisations Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF), and SOS MEDITERRANEE involved in search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean.
“How can the 2016 to is this still happening? These families, people vulnerable, pregnant women, little babies, unborn babies, are forced to risk their lives in the Mediterranean when they should be offered support and protection”, emphasize the Doctors Without Borders.
The boy was born in international waters of Nigerian parents, who gave him the name Newman Otas. Parents Otas and Faith and the two older brothers Victory (seven years old) and Rollres (five years old) were rescued from an overloaded rubber boat 24 hours earlier.

A total of 392 people boarded the rescue ship, after I rescued them from two boats and a transfer from another ship. Of these, 155 are minors under the age of 18, most of which (141) are travelling on their own, without a parent or chaperone. There are also 11 children under the age of five years and four infants who have not attained the first year.
The mother Faith of the infant said: “I Had a lot of stress on the boat, I was sitting on the floor with the other women and children. I was panicking that I will give birth. I felt the baby move, one downwards and one upwards. I had contractions for three days.”

The midwife of Doctors Without Borders Jonquil Nicholl by birth, said immediately after: “we Had a very normal birth in the dangerous non-natural conditions. I shudder to think what would have happened if the baby came 24 hours earlier, in this plastic boat, with fuel in the bottom where they sat the women, one on top of the other, without any space to move, at the mercy of the sea. And 48 hours earlier, waited on the shore in Libya without knowing what the future holds for them. How can the 2016 to is this still happening? These families, people vulnerable, pregnant women, little babies, unborn babies, are forced to risk their lives in the Mediterranean when they should be offered support and protection”.

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