Italy, France try to solve migrant row
ROME: European neighbours Italy and France tried to patch up a row over immigration on Thursday as Pope Francis urged politicians everywhere to work together on helping refugees and respect their dignity.
Italy summoned France’s envoy on Wednesday and demanded an apology from President Emmanuel Macron, who had said Rome’s move to block a migrant rescue ship from its ports was an act of “cynicism and irresponsibility”.
Mr Macron, in a late Wednesday phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, said he did not mean to offend “Italy and the Italian people”, according to a statement.
The two leaders confirmed a lunch meeting yesterday to discuss “new initiatives” on immigration, a day after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini announced an “axis” with Germany and Austria to fight illegal migration.
“France does not want escalation; it’s counter productive,” a source close to Mr Macron said as the president visited the western town of Rochefort.
“We need to maintain dialogue.” However, the source added that Mr Macron was not “taking back anything”.
Mr Salvini has vowed to continue to block foreign humanitarian boats from Italian ports as Europe wrestles with how to share the responsibility of handling migrants trying to enter the EU from war zones and poor countries, largely across Africa and the Middle East.
More than 1.8 million migrants have arrived in Europe since 2014, and Italy is now sheltering more than 170,000 asylum seekers, as well as an estimated 500,000 unregistered migrants. A European Union summit will discuss the bloc’s asylum rules at the end of the month.
Pope Francis, who has made the defence of refugees a plank of his papacy, rebuked politicians for not respecting the dignity of migrants and demanded “a change in mindset”.
Speaking at a conference on migration at the Vatican, the pope said countries must work together and “move from considering others as threats to our comfort to valuing them as persons whose life experience and values can contribute greatly to the enrichment of our society”.
The row centred on the charity ship Aquarius, which both Italy and Malta refused to let dock at their ports. It was carrying 629 migrants and is heading to Spain, which has offered safe harbour, escorted by two Italian ships.
Now the migrants are suffering from sea sickness due to rough conditions, according to Doctors without Borders, one of the charities that runs the Aquarius.
Ropes have been strung around the ship to make it easier to walk on deck, video from the Aquarius showed. Among the migrants are women and small children who are not expected to disembark before tonight. They were rescued off the coast of Libya last week.