Rescued migrants go to Spain
Madrid allows ship carrying hundreds after Italy, Malta refuses
ROME: Spain authorised a ship carrying hundreds of migrants rescued off Libya to sail to its waters after Italy and Malta refused to receive them.
The Spanish coastguard “due to the refusal or lack of response from the nearest ports, has authorised (the ship’s) movement to Spanish territorial waters”, a government statement said, with the migrants expected to spend Christmas at sea.
Libya, France and Tunisia did not respond to a request from Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms to disembark the 311 men, women, children and babies, Spain said, after Italy’s hard-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the migrants were not welcome.
“My answer is clear: Italian ports are closed!” Salvini tweeted. “For the traffickers of human beings and for those who help them, the fun is over.”
The NGO said a Maltese coastguard helicopter had taken a woman and her baby born on a Libyan beach three days ago who were among those rescued at sea by the Open Arms.
The Maltese government confirmed rescuing a newborn baby boy and his mother, 23.
Proactiva Open Arms said on Friday that it had rescued more than 300 migrants from three vessels in difficulty, including men, women – some of them pregnant – children and babies.
NGO spokesman Laura Lanuza said that the boat was heading for Algeciras, near Gibraltar. Journey time will depend on the weather but take “five to six days”, she said.
The NGO’s sailboat Astral is headed from Badalona near Barcelona to the Open Arms with food supplies, Lanuza said.
The NGO posted a video of some of those rescued “from a certain death at sea. If you could feel the cold in the images, it would be easier to understand the emergency. No port to disembark and Malta’s refusal to give us food. This isn’t Christmas.”
After announcing the closure of Italian ports, Salvini tweeted a photo of the tortellini and sausage he had for lunch.