Italy sends immigration message, rejects ship
Migrants rest aboard SOS Mediterranee’s Aquarius ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy and Malta refused to let the rescue ship with 629 people aboard dock in their ports. VALLETTA, MALTA >> Italy’s new populist government has delivered a jolt to European migration politics, prompting a diplomatic standoff with its refusal to accept a rescue vessel overloaded with migrants.
Even after Spain offered to open its doors on Monday, the incident was not fully resolved, because the Aquarius — with 629 people aboard, including unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and people suffering chemical burns — still faced a grueling multiday journey from near the coast of Malta to the Spanish port of Valencia.
The dispute was among the first consequences of political upheaval in Italy, where anti-migrant leaders recently rose to power with a pledge to crack down on new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa. At a news conference on Monday, Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, protested the inequity of Italy serving as a primary entry point for refugees and migrants while other members of the European Union balk at helping to resettle them.
“This was a first important signal that Italy cannot go on alone supporting this huge weight,” said Salvini, who threatened to bar additional rescue vessels.
The question of where boats land is a critical one, because European rules require refugees to request asylum in the country where they first arrive. EU leaders have butted heads over how to reform those rules and avoid overburdening individual countries. On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — a Socialist in his second week on the job — pointedly mentioned that it was an “obligation” to give “these 600 people a safe harbor.”
“We comply with international commitments regarding humanitarian emergencies,” Sánchez wrote on Twitter.
But no matter the goodwill Sánchez receives, analysts and migration experts said Spanish ports don’t represent a sustainable alternative for vessels rescuing migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, given the distance those boats would need to travel, as well as existing pressures in Spain.