Ship awaits port access in migrant standoff
MILAN » Two charities running rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea have said Italy has ignored requests to allow their ship to bring 356 migrants ashore, exposing Europe’s latest failure to deal with African migration.
The Norwegian-flagged ship, Ocean Viking, already stranded at sea for 13 days awaiting port access, has been denied entry by Malta and its two requests to Italian authorities have gone unanswered, they said.
However, in a sign of a possible resolution, Portugal’s government said late on Thursday it was ready to take up to 35 migrants and that France, Germany, Romania and Luxembourg were also willing to receive some of the people from the boat.
The ship is carrying mostly Africans from Sudan, plucked from the sea in four separate missions. They include more than 100 minors, around 90 of them unaccompanied, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. Three children are under the age of five.
The plight of the Ocean Viking, run by MSF and another French charity, SOS Méditerranée, threatens to create another migration standoff with Italy if it chooses to head there, after weeks of controversy involving another charityrun rescue ship.
About 100 migrants were stranded off Italy for almost three weeks on the Open Arms until a prosecutor intervened and ordered them brought ashore against Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s wishes. Five of Italy’s EU partners will take them in.
“This is shameful,” said Jay Berger, project coordinator for MSF, speaking by satellite phone from the Ocean Viking, in international waters between Malta and the southern Italian island of Linosa.
“Leaving migrants on rescue boats for weeks until the crisis becomes an emergency is becoming the new norm,” he said. “We’re not trying to force our way into Italian or Maltese waters. We’re waiting for a solution but it is taking too long.”
The ship requested port access to Italian authorities on Aug. 9 and Aug. 12, the charities said.
An Italian Transport Ministry spokesman declined to comment. Italy’s Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to an email seeking comment.
Rome has banned entry to private rescue ships, which operate off Libya in international waters close to Italy. Salvini calls them “taxis” for people- smugglers and says Italy should not be “Europe’s refugee camp.”
“In response to the appeal by the European Commission, Portugal is ready to take in up to 35 people out of the 356 rescued by the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking,” the Portuguese government said in a statement.