Italy to push EU to rotate ports where migrants disembark

ROME: Rome will ask the European Union to rotate the ports where migrants rescued at sea disembark, Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said, with France and Spain expected to top the list.

Trenta will put the plan to her European counterparts during an informal meeting in Vienna.

“Tomorrow ... I will carry in the name of the Italian government a proposal to modify the rules of the Sophia mission concerning the port of disembarkation,” she wrote on Facebook.

The proposal calls for a revision of the EU’s military operation codenamed Sophia – currently commanded by Italy – and under which all migrants rescued disembark at an Italian port.

“We consider this principle unacceptable and want it to be reviewed,” Trenta added.

“Tomorrow the ball will be in the EU camp: by accepting our proposal it will have the opportunity to show it is a real community of values and intentions; by refusing it will deny its own fundamental principles.”

Sophia was launched in June 2015 following a series of deadly shipwrecks involving migrants and has since picked up thousands of migrants floundering in the Mediterranean.

“The proposal aims for a rotation of landing ports ... our goal is to ensure that Italy is not the only one taking charge of the problem, but also other member states,” a defence ministry source told reporters.

According to La Stampa newspaper, Italy’s idea is to rotate landings between Mediterranean ports, with a particular emphasis on France and Spain, and with Greece and Malta also sharing the load. — AFP