Spain invites rescue boat to port

Italy’s new hard-right interior minister declared victory yesterday after Spain offered to take a rescue boat carrying 629 migrants that Rome had refused.

The Gibraltar-flagged Aquarius was left in limbo in the middle of the Mediterranean after Malta said it was Italy’s responsibility and Rome’s new populist government announced in retaliation that it would refuse the vessel.

Matteo Salvini, the interior minister and the head of the hardright League party, one half of the coalition, said Italy would not be turned into ‘‘an enormous refugee camp’’, having accepted around 700,000 asylum seekers in the past five years.

His blocking of the rescue ship was the start of a new, hardline anti-immigrant policy on which the League campaigned heavily during Italy’s election campaign.

A possible breakthrough in the impasse came when Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, who took office just over a week ago, gave instructions for the boat to be allowed to dock in the eastern port of Valencia. ‘‘It’s our duty to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer a secure port for these people,’’ the Socialist premier said.

Salvini, who has promised to stop the ‘‘business’’ of irregular migration across the Mediterranean, was exultant.

‘‘Evidently raising your voice, something Italy did not do for years, pays,’’ he wrote on Twitter in response to the offer from Madrid.

‘‘Victory – 629 migrants on board the ship Aquarius heading for Spain. First objective (of the new government) achieved.’’

He has accused NGOS of operating a ‘‘taxi service’’ that brings largely economic migrants, rather than refugees, from Libya to Italy.

It was not clear how practical Spain’s offer was, given that the Aquarius was located between Malta and Sicily, around 750 nautical miles from Valencia. It is a three-day voyage and the ship’s crew said they only had enough food for a day or two. The Aquarius is operated jointly by two humanitarian organisations, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Sos Mediterranee.

However, the MSF said it had received no instructions to head to Spain.

A long journey would be a severe challenge for many of the migrants, with some suffering from dehydration and exposure. – Telegraph Group