…As Portugal, Spain, France agree to share Aquarius migrants***

Death toll from a Tanzanian ferry disaster has risen to 228, an official indicated on Tuesday, noting that the ferry with a capacity of 100 passengers was actually overloaded beyond a 300 capacity when the unexpected occured.

Sadly, as authorities continue to try righting the vessel, more bodies were uncovered.

“After flipping the ferry on its side, it seems like there are no more bodies inside,” Minister of State Jenista Mhagama told a news conference broadcast on national television.

Mhagama added that 41 people have been rescued.

Gen. Venance Mabeyo, chief of the defence forces, said that he expected the ferry would be upright later.

“We have managed to lift it and it is now resting on its side.

“We are fixing more floating bags on its side and we will inflate them, hoping that they will help to flip the vessel into its normal position,” he added.

Initial investigations show that the ferry, designed to carry about 100 people, was carrying over 300 passengers when it sank on Lake Victoria.

Accidents are not uncommon on Lake Victoria, which straddles Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, with sinking often caused by poor maintenance and overloading.

On Monday, the prime minister appointed a team to investigate the accident.

Meanwhile, France, Portugal and Spain on Tuesday struck a deal to take in migrants from the Mediterranean rescue ship Aquarius, the Portuguese Interior Ministry said, after the Italian government refused to let the vessel dock.

Portugal said it had agreed to take 10 of the 58 migrants on board as part of a “response of solidarity to the flow of migrants seeking to reach Europe across the Mediterranean”.

It was not immediately clear how many migrants France and Spain had agreed to take in or where the ship would dock.

Earlier on Tuesday, France said it was not ready to let the Aquarius dock in Marseille, as suggested by the charities operating the ship, adding that a European solution involving the nearest port, Malta, was in the works.

“For the moment it’s no,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said when asked on BFM TV if Paris was ready to respond positively to a request from the charities for permission to dock in the southern French port.

Le Maire said ships were supposed to dock at the nearest port under European rules and Marseille was not the nearest.

“On matters of migration, the issue must be handled firmly and clearly, and European rules respected,” the minister said.

On Sunday, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the far-right League Party said the Aquarius had hindered the work of the Libyan coast guard and Italy’s ports would remain shut.

A source in the French president’s office said: “We’re working on a European solution, as we’ve done before.”

In August, France and Malta struck a deal to let the Aquarius dock in Valletta harbor after France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain agreed to take in the migrants, ending a five-day tug-of-war among EU countries.

Aquarius 2 is the one remaining charity rescue vessel still operating in the central Mediterranean, picking up migrants who are in most cases trying to get to Europe from Libya, often in overcrowded, unseaworthy boats.

On Monday, Panama authorities revoked the Aquarius’s registration, meaning that once it docks it will be ‘de-flagged’ and will not have the right to sail unless a new registration is found.

A public backlash over the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the past five years has fueled a swing toward far-right parties in many countries in Europe.

It has helped bring Italy’s anti-establishment ruling coalition to power earlier this year.