Migrant ship drama shows the new Italy
ROME — Spain stepped up Monday and offered to take in a rescue ship carrying more than 600 migrants after Italy and Malta refused. The diplomatic standoff left the migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea and laid bare the brassknuckled negotiating tactics of Italy’s new anti-immigrant government.
The U.N. refugee agency, the European Union, Germany and humanitarian groups had all demanded that Italy and Malta put their domestic politics aside and urgently consider the plight of the 629 migrants, among them more than 120 children, seven pregnant women and people suffering from hypothermia.
Italy quickly thanked Spain’s new Socialist prime minister for the offer to receive aid group SOS Mediterranee’s ship at the port of Valencia and announced that it had forced a turning point in Europe’s migrant crisis.
But politics aside, it wasn’t certain if the voyage to Spain was feasible given how far that was from the ship’s current location and how long the rescue vessel had been at sea. The Aquarius on Monday was more than 750 miles from Valencia and by late Monday said it hadn’t received any instructions yet to head to Spain.
“It means that we need at least two more days of sailing, which is not possible today with 629 people on board,” SOS Mediterranee Maritime Operations Manager Antoine Laurent said. “The situation is stable but it cannot run” forever.
Despite the diplomatic pressure, Italy and Malta held firm, with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini clearly using the high seas drama as a pretext to force the hand of Italy’s European neighbors. Italy has long demanded that the EU change its migration policy and make good on promises to accept more refugees, saying that Italy has been left alone to coordinate rescues and accept tens of thousands of migrants a year for asylum processing.
“Enough!” Salvini said Monday. “Saving lives is a duty, but transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp isn’t.”
His co-deputy premier, Luigi Di Maio, claimed that Monday was a turning point in Europe’s divisive debate over immigration.
“From now on, Italy isn’t alone, and we hope other European leaders follow” Spain’s example, said Di Maio.
The migrants had been rescued from flimsy smugglers’ boats in the Mediterranean over the weekend.