Italy turns away rescue boat carrying 600 migrants
Italy’s new interior minister threatened to bar rescue ships from docking in the country’s ports after Malta refused to take hundreds of migrants, reports say.
Matteo salvini sent a letter to the Maltese authorities saying he would ‘be forced to close Italy’s ports’ if the 629 migrants saved by the French charity sOs Mediterranee weren’t allowed to land at Malta’s capital Valletta.
Italy’s interior ministry were unable to confirm the existence of the letter.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Maltese government said ‘Malta was neither the co-ordinating nor the competent authority’ in the rescue.
sOs Mediterranee said the passengers on its ship, the aquarius, included 400 people who were picked up by the Italian navy, the country’s coastguard and private cargo ships and transferred.
the rescue ship’s crew pulled 229 migrants from the water or from traffickers’ unseaworthy boats on saturday night, including 123 unaccompanied children and seven pregnant women. ‘Our sole objective is to bring the people we’ve rescued, in difficult conditions yesterday, to a port of safety,’ the group said in a statement.
Mr salvini, who is also the leader of the anti-migrant league party as well as Italy’s deputy prime minister, tweeted yesterday: ‘starting today, Italy, too, begins to say NO to the trafficking of human beings, NO to the business of clandestine immigration.’
the previous Italian government also threatened to close the country’s ports last July during that summer’s spate of migrant movements across the Mediterranean. sOs Mediterranee spokesman Mathilde auvillain said the ship was ‘heading north following instructions received after the rescues and transfers’ on saturday night.
the rescue co-ordination centre in Rome gave the instructions to the charity.
the aid group said in a statement it had taken ‘good note’ of Mr salvini’s stance, as reported earlier by Italian media.
It added that the aquarius was ‘still waiting for definitive instructions regarding the port of safety’.
the United Nations says at least 785 migrants have died crossing the sea so far this year.