Spain offers safe harbour to migrant ship

MADRID/ROME: Spain has offered “a safe harbour” for the migrant ship carrying 629 people to “avoid disaster”, the Spanish government said on Monday.

Italy and Malta welcomed Spain’s decision, a day after the ship was denied entry in Italian ports.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “It is our obligation to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer ‘a safe harbour’ to these people, thus complying with obligations of international law.”

He said the Spanish city of Valencia would let the ship dock. The president of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, Ximo Puig, said the permission for the ship to dock had been granted by Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo.

Calvo said Valencia would be the port to receive them as a part of a “humanitarian operation, which the government will undertake hand in hand with the UN”, according to Puig.

However, local media reported that the captain of the ship, Aquarius, had not been notified of the new destination, Valencia, a journey that could last about three days.

The Aquarius wandered for over 36 hours in the central Mediterranean, since Italy and Malta both refused to let it reach their ports and disembark the 629 people rescued during six missions off the coasts of Libya last week.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said their response was meant to stop the business of illegal immigration. – Xinhua