61 migrants rescued by freighter off Malta landed on Crete

A group of 61 migrants picked up by a cargo ship from a crippled vessel in the central Mediterranean have safely reached Crete hours after a severely ill child on the freighter died while being airlifted to the Greek island, authorities said Wednesday.
It was unclear whether these were the same people who had earlier been reported stranded for days without provisions on a leaking fishing boat near Malta, after trying to sail from Lebanon to Italy.
On Tuesday, a Greek navy helicopter had airlifted a 4-year-old girl with health problems and her mother off the BBC Pearl freighter, that had rescued the migrants, but the child was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital on Crete.
The coast guard said the remaining 33 men, seven women and 21 children disembarked from the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged ship early Wednesday at the port of Kali Limenes on southern Crete.
Two were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening health issues, while the rest were temporarily put up in a sports hall in the town of Moires.
The migrants told authorities they were Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians.