THEY WILL ONLY SEE ITALY ON A POSTCARD
Hardline minister’s warning to migrants as he closes all ports to rescue vessel carrying 224
‘We want to send away a few’
migrants will see italy only ‘on a postcard’, its deputy Pm declared yesterday.
as he blocked a vessel carrying 224 asylum seekers from docking at any of italy’s ports, matteo salvini insisted his country could not ‘take in any more’.
He demanded that malta or France should provide assistance instead.
His hardline approach further widened European divisions over immigration. a row over border controls is already threatening to bring down angela merkel’s coalition in germany.
Last week mr salvini blocked the aquarius rescue boat that was carrying another 629 migrants. it was forced to seek refuge in spain.
Yesterday he vowed to enforce a permanent ban on rescue boats, taking aim at a vessel sailing for italy that carried out a rescue off the coast of Libya early on thursday morning.
italy has asked malta, a frontline mediterranean country that receives relatively few migrants, to receive the vessel, which is run by the german aid group mission Lifeline under a Dutch flag.
mr salvini said he had contacted the Dutch ambassador about the ship’s activities, saying the migrants ‘will only see italy on a postcard’.
mr salvini, who acts as interior minister, said: ‘italian ports are no longer at the disposal of traffickers. Open the maltese ports. Open the French ports. Foreign charity boats will never touch italian soil again.’
the far-right politician later told a german magazine: ‘ We cannot take in one more person. On the contrary: we want to send away a few.’
mr salvini, leader of the League party that makes up one half of ruling coalition, called for the Lifeline to be impounded and for its crew to be arrested. Critics have accused him of using charities as a scapegoat, with the vast majority of asylum seekers reaching italy in official rescue missions carried out or aided by the coastguard.
more than 100,000 of the 650,000 asylum seekers who travelled to italy over the past four years remain in the country, prompting concerns about local authorities being under threat.
mr salvini, who drew condemnation earlier this week for proposing the deportation of italy’s roma community, has rattled EU leaders with his aggressive rhetoric. and last night he warned: ‘Within a year it will be decided whether there will still be a united Europe or not.’
speaking to reporters in Como yesterday – next to two bus drivers who were allegedly assaulted by four migrants – he said the ‘fake asylumseekers’, would be rapidly deported to gambia and nigeria. ‘these guys won’t be taking the bus in Como anymore,’ mr salvini said.
But most of those who have lost asylum bids have little chance of being deported, thanks to complicated bureaucracy, a lack of diplomatic agreements with the refugees’ homelands and the unwillingness of impoverished countries to take back their citizens.
Last weekend more than 629 refugees from nations including nigeria, sudan, Eritrea and algeria set foot in Valencia, spain, a week after the aquarius saved them from the sea.
among them were seven migrants aged under five, and of all the children on board the ship, 123 were unaccompanied minors.
they had come from 26 countries and spent 20 hours at sea in overcrowded rubber dinghies before they were rescued by the aquarius, a ship which is run by the charity sOs méditerranée. after the ship was barred from both italian and maltese officials, the spanish authorities offered the migrants refuge.
Hundreds of the survivors, many of whom were ill or injured, were put into two other boats to alleviate the conditions aboard the aquarius for the journey to spain.
Dr David Beversluis, one of the aid workers, said 40 people had fallen into the water when they were rescued and were not breathing when hauled out of the sea.
He added: ‘Last week was terribly difficult for the people on board, for the medical team. Fortunately, despite many difficulties, we were able to provide appropriate medical care to all patients.’