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NEU Senior Industrial Organiser
Malta and Italy refuse doctor's call to evacuate pregnant women from refugee rescue ship
Women and children on board the Open Arms rescue ship wait to be granted with a place to come ashore

THE Maltese and Italian authorities have refused to evacuate two pregnant women and seven others with severe burns from a refugee rescue ship in the central Mediterranean as the weather worsens.

A doctor from medical charity Emergency called both countries’ authorities on Sunday from the Open Arms, a rescue ship operated by a Spanish charity of the same name.

In a statement late on Monday night, Emergency said that the nine people were in need of immediate hospital treatment and that the two pregnant women — one of whom is just 18 — were both experiencing nausea and weakness.

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