Fifteen migrants make break for Italy as more threaten to jump from Open Arms ship

The humanitarian organisation that runs the boat says more of the migrants are threatening to jump overboard.

18 August: Desperate migrants attempt to swim to shore in Italy

At least 15 migrants have jumped in the sea after being stranded on a rescue ship off the coast of Italy for 19 days.
The Open Arms humanitarian group, which operates the vessel, said the situation on board was "out of control" and "desperate".

The migrants - who were rescued near Libya in early August - have been stranded after Italy refused to let them in.
After one person jumped ship early in the day and was rescued by the coastguard, nine more launched themselves into the sea wearing orange life vests, followed by five more.
The migrants were attempting to reach the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, only a few hundred metres away.

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Footage showed a coastguard vessel and rubber dinghies trying to reach them.

Image: A migrant who jumped off the Open Arms ship is carried on stretcher in Lampedusa

Image: One of the migrants who jumped off the ship is pictured after arriving on Lampedusa

Open Arms said the Italian coastguard had rescued all 15 and taken them to Lampedusa, leaving the remaining migrants behind as conditions on board reportedly deteriorate.
A similar incident happened on Sunday when four people jumped in the sea and were chased down and brought back to the boat.
Laura Lanuza, a spokeswoman for the organisation, said she had heard from crew members that "those who remain aboard are threatening with jumping as well".
Spanish public broadcaster TVE, reporting from on board, said those jumping were "desperate and going mad" after being trapped for nearly three weeks.
The Open Arms captain has warned authorities that the crew of 17 can no longer control the situation as frustrated migrants have begun to fight.
Italy's hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini has banned the ship from docking, but six other European countries have agreed to take in the migrants - and Spain is now sending a ship to collect them.

Image: Spanish media say the migrants are 'desperate and going mad'

The Spanish government has dispatched a naval ship to Italian waters to escort the vessel to Spain.
The office of caretaker prime minister Pedro Sanchez said the Audaz warship would leave the port of Rota on Tuesday afternoon.
It will arrive in Lampedusa on Friday and then sail to the main port on the island of Majorca.
However, the humanitarian group said the offer had come too late and the voyage was too long for the migrants and crew after so much time at sea.

Migrant tells of horror on doomed boat

An Ethiopian man says his last companion, a pregnant woman, died the day before he was rescued.

Last week, 40 migrants and some of their family members were allowed to leave the ship as they were believed to be minors or in poor health.
A series of stand-offs with Italy started immediately after the populist coalition of League and 5-Star Movement took office last June.
In the first, the Aquarius, operated by two French groups, made the long trip to Spain with 630 migrants after Madrid opened its ports.

Image: Conditions on the boat are are said to be deteriorating

But Spain has changed its approach, saying international marine laws and EU regulations require that rescued people need to be taken to the closest and safest port.
It also says that EU members need to find a long-term solution for dealing with migration that does not rely so much on just the Mediterranean countries.
Open Arms sailed within a few hundred metres of Lampedusa after winning a court ruling overturning Mr Salvini's ban on private rescue boats entering Italy's territorial waters.
He has appealed against the ruling and warned that his ban on docking still holds.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking, which is operated by two French humanitarian groups and has 356 rescued migrants aboard, has been sailing between Malta and the Italian island of Linosa as it waits for a port of safety to be assigned.
And authorities in Cyprus have picked up 33 migrants found packed onto a small boat. They had been sailing off the island's southern coast.
Cypriot police said the migrants included 17 men, six women, eight infants and two children - all but one of them are Syrian.
Hundreds of migrants have been picked up in the Mediterranean during the past week, heading from Libya and going towards Spain and Italy, and leaving Turkey and attempting to reach Greek islands.