Hundreds of migrants arrive in Spanish port as rescue ship docks

F R E E Q U O T

E The first Italian government ship accompanying the migrant aid boat Aquarius has docked at the Spanish port of Valencia.

The Italian coastguard vessel Dattilo arrived just before 7am yesterday.

It will be followed by the Aquarius and another Italian navy ship, the Orione.

The Aquarius and the two Italian boats are carrying the 630 migrants rescued by the Aquarius while attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean last week.

The Aquarius, a boat operated by the aid groups SOS Mediterranee Sea and Doctors Without Borders, was stuck off the coast of Sicily last Saturday when Italy refused it permission to dock and demanded Malta do so.

Malta refused and Spain stepped in and offered to grant them entry some 930 miles away.

The migrants were met by emergency workers, including health officials and psychologists, at the city’s marina.

Spanish authorities said they will examine the migrants case by case to see if they qualify for asylum according to the country’s regulations.

Spain’s minister of public works, Miguel Angel Abalos, said that the migrants from the Aquarius would be granted a “special authorisation” to remain in the country for one month before “they will be dealt with according to our laws without exception”.

Abalos said the Spanish government “will act within the law and with a message to Europe that it doesn’t have an immigration policy up to the challenge at hand”.

The boatload of migrants that was forced to spend days crossing the western Mediterranean includes 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 children and as many as seven pregnant women, according to Valencia’s regional authorities.

Spain has accepted the French government’s offer to take in those migrants who want to go to France “once they have fulfilled the protocols established for their arrival”.

The refusal by Italy and Malta to allow the Aquarius to enter their ports has created a row between EU members over how to handle immigration.

Under the EU’S asylum laws – currently the subject of a major political dispute and under revision – migrants must apply for asylum in the country where they first enter Europe.

The arrival of the Aquarius convoy comes during a spike of seaborne migrants crossing from African shores to southern Spain. Through the first five months of 2018, a total of 35,455 migrants reached European shores, with 11,792 of them arriving in Spain. Spain’s new Socialist government has taken up the cause of the migrants to demonstrate its commitment to protecting human rights.