Salvini allows minors off migrant ship

ROME (AFP) — Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday reluctantly authorized 27 migrant children rescued at sea to disembark from a charity vessel anchored in limbo off Lampedusa island for days.

In a letter, Salvini told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte he could authorize the “alleged” minors to leave the Open Arms ship, despite it being “divergent to my orientation.”

However, the remaining 105 adults and two accompanied children must stay on board in what the charity Proactiva Open Arms said were “untenable” conditions.

“The go-ahead for the disembarkation of these people is the exclusive responsibility of the prime minister,” Salvini wrote in reply to a humanitarian request from Conte. The interior minister has the final say on border issues.

The charity said it would need time to break the news to the migrants that most of them must remain on board. Some were rescued more than two weeks ago.

“They will be evacuated by the coastguard of Lampedusa,” it tweeted.

This is the umpteenth standoff between a charity vessel rescuing migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and Salvini, but this time set against the background of a political crisis in Rome.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, has gained popularity through his hardline policies against migrants and asylum seekers.

He agreed last year with coalition partner the Five Star Movement’s (M5S) Luigi Di Maio for Conte to be prime minister.

But the men’s relationship has unraveled since Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League, last week pulled his party out of the ruling coalition in the hope of toppling the 14-month-old government.