Italy’s hardline stance sees first migrant ship refused entry

ITALY’S populist government intensified its tough new approach to migrants by refusing, for the first time, to allow an Italian merchant ship to deliver a group of rescued asylum seekers to an Italian port.

The Vos Thalassa, an oil rig supply vessel, picked up 66 migrants from the middle of the Mediterranean after they set out from the coast of Libya.

But instead of being allowed to bring the asylum seekers directly to Italian soil, as would have happened in the past, Rome insisted that they be transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel.

Danilo Toninelli, the transport minister, alleged the migrants had threatened the 12 crew members with a mutiny and endangered their lives, adding that “troublemakers” would be identified and punished.

Matteo Salvini, the interior minister, has already banned NGO ships operated by humanitarian groups from landing rescued migrants in Italy. Now he wants to extend the ban to merchant vessels and even foreign military ships.

Mr Salvini, head of the hard-right League party, told the Il Messaggero newspaper: “We’ve done more than anyone else [to take in migrants]. That’s enough. It’s someone else’s turn.”

It came as it was revealed on Monday that Spain has become the main entry point for migrants fleeing Africa, with about 19,000 asylum-seekers arriving in the first five months of this year, eclipsing arrivals in Italy from North Africa for the first time. The surge has intensified in recent weeks as Italy clamped down on its ports, rescue officials say.

Migration will be a thorny issue at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Innsbruck, Austria, starting tomorrow.