Italy ‘propaganda coup’ used EU cash to ship migrants to Spain

ITALY spent hundreds of thousands of euros in European Union funds to escort the Aquarius migrant rescue boat to Spain after refusing it permission to land at Italian ports.

The new populist coalition government in Rome used the turning away of the Aquarius to signal a new tougher anti-migrant stance shortly after the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement came to power just days earlier.

More than 600 refugees and migrants were left stranded at sea in a four-day standoff until Spain agreed to take in the charity boat at Valencia.

At least €200,000 (£180,000), 90 per cent of that journey’s costs, was paid for by cash from Brussels meant for emergency and rescue services in Italian waters, according to the Euobserver website, which made a freedom of information request to the Italian coastguard. The revelation that the EU had paid for the propaganda coup came as 177 migrants were refused permission to disembark in the Italian port of Catania for a sixth day in a row.

Matteo Salvini, the interior minister and leader of the League, said they would not be allowed to set foot in the Sicilian port “until Europe steps into help”. Mr Salvini demanded that the migrants, who were saved by the Italian coastguard and are mostly Eritrean, be redistributed across the bloc “in a spirit of solidarity” or be sent back to Libya.

Rome has already forced EU leaders into a marathon all-night summit on migration, which briefly threatened to topple Angela Merkel.

The European Commission, which is responsible for the disbursement of EU funds, said yesterday that it could not confirm that public money had been spent on escorting the Aquarius. “We have the instruments in place to make sure the taxpayers’ money is spent exactly how it should be.”

The Commission could hold back future payments or demand the funds be reimbursed.

Rome has said it is tired of shouldering the brunt of the migration crisis without more help from other EU states, while the Commission has struggled to paper over deep divisions in the bloc over reforms to migration policy.

Eastern European countries have refused to take in migrants resettled from Italy and richer northern countries, insisting that arriving migrants must claim asylum in the first EU country they arrive in, which is usually poorer nations such as Italy and Greece.