Spanish boat saves 60 migrants from sea but Italy locks its ports
ABOARD THE OPEN ARMS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA — A Spanish rescue boat plucked 60 migrants Saturday from a patched-up rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya, igniting another political row between Italy and Malta over who should let the aid boat dock.
The vessel, Open Arms, run by Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms, said it rescued the migrants — including five women, a nineyear-old child and three teenagers — after it spotted a rub- hundreds of thousands of Libyan maritime authorities, ber boat patched with duct migrants saved from smug- who didn’t answer either by tape floating in the sea. All glers’ boats. phone or by radio. The capthe migrants appeared in But cracks have started tain said officials in Rome good health. showing between the two then told him it was up to
Italy’s right-wing Inteparties in Italy’s new populist him to decide whether to rior Minister Matteo Salvini coalition government over carry out the rescue. quickly declared that the resSalvini’s hard-line approach. An Associated Press jourcue boat “can forget about Roberto Fico, president of nalist aboard a nearby rescue arriving in an Italian port” Parliament’s lower chamber vessel, the Astral, when the and claimed the boat should and a leading figure in the dinghy was spotted reported go to Malta, the nearest port. 5-Star Movement, the ruling that a Libya coast guard ves
But Malta swiftly pushed coalition’s senior partner, sel approached the Open back, with its interior ministold reporters after inspectArms, but just as it neared ter contending that the tiny ing a migrant reception cen- the rescue, it made a U-turn Italian island of Lampedusa, ter in a Sicilian port town and left, ordering the Open south of Sicily, was closer to that “I wouldn’t close the Arms to return to Spain. the boat. ports.” Malta’s interior minister,
The Open Arms is the Fico told reporters that Michael Farrugia, tweeted a third rescue ship operated Libya now “isn’t a place with sharp retort to Salvini. by humanitarian groups in security” and its coast guard “Quit spreading incorrect the central Mediterranean “needs the support of the news, dragging Malta into to come into the crosshairs Italian navy and coast guard it for no reason,” he wrote, of Salvini’s crackdown in the and also from some NGO attaching a map that he said last three weeks. boats.” He urged more solindicated the rescue occurred
Even though the numidarity toward the migrants, in Libya’s search-and-rescue ber of migrants arriving in who he said have “dramatic area and in waters between Europe is sharply down this stories that touch the heart.” Libya and the Italian island year from 2017, the topic Salvini contended Satof Lampedusa. of migration has deepened urday on Twitter that the A day earlier, a Spanish political divisions in the EuroOpen Arms had taken on aid boat reported that it was pean Union, fueled in part the migrants before a Libyan called off rescuing a boat in by the demands of anti-miboat in Libya’s search-andtrouble by Italy’s coordinagrant nationalist parties. rescue zone could intervene. tion center, which said the
Salvini has vowed that But the Open Arms’ capLibyan coast guard would no more humanitarian tain, Marco Martinez, said he handle it. The Libyan coast groups’ rescue boats will told the Rome-based Mari- guard rescued 16 people, dock in Italy, where in recent time Rescue Coordination but another 100 migrants years, private rescue vessels Center about the migrants were reported missing and have brought many of the and was instructed to call feared dead at sea.