Six European Countries Accept Migrants from Stranded Rescue Ship

The Open Arms ship, carrying approximately 150 rescued migrants who have been denied permission to dock at any European port for the past two weeks, has been forced to anchor in waters near the port of Lampedusa.

Now Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced in an open letter to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, published on Facebook on Thursday, August 15 (August 24 in the Persian calendar), that Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Romania have expressed their willingness to accept the rescued migrants.

The French news agency reported, citing a spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry, that Berlin is not shirking its responsibility regarding the situation of rescued migrants and is currently in negotiations with the European Commission on this issue.

The Spanish government also stated it would be willing to accept some of the migrants, provided that there is “a common European solution” for distributing the 147 passengers of the rescue ship among EU member states. Spain says the European Union must act collectively to address the illegal migration problem. The Open Arms rescue ship belongs to a Spanish company and has not yet received permission to dock at the port of Lampedusa. Since the right-wing League party led by Salvini and the Five Star Movement came to power in Italy through a coalition, the country’s policies against migrants have become much stricter.

In a message posted on the rescue ship’s Twitter account on Thursday, the ship’s passengers were described as refugees fleeing “Libya’s hell” who have been living on the ship’s deck for the past 14 days without a safe place to disembark.

In recent weeks, Italy has refused to allow rescue ships carrying rescued migrants in the Mediterranean Sea to dock. The denial of entry permission for the Open Arms ship and another vessel carrying migrants to the port of Lampedusa came following an order issued by Salvini, who says Italy is not a refugee camp for Europe.

Court Ruling Against Salvini’s Decree

Nevertheless, on Wednesday, an Italian court ruled to overturn Salvini’s decree, and he attempted to prevent the migrant ship from docking at the port of Lampedusa by issuing a new order. This decree requires approval from Italy’s Defense Minister to be implemented, but he has refused to do so.

In his letter, the Italian Prime Minister accused Salvini of overly focusing on the migrant issue and reducing this problem to the “closed ports” solution for political gain.

Giuseppe Conte wrote that if the aim is to protect Italy’s national interests, one cannot limit oneself to adopting a policy of “absolute inflexibility.”

The Italian Prime Minister’s forthright remarks, who is not a member of either of the two coalition parties, are not unrelated to Salvini’s efforts last week when, by proposing a no-confidence vote in the government and calling for early parliamentary elections, he plunged the government into a deep crisis.

The right-wing parties hope that through early elections and by capitalizing on the migrant crisis, they will gain more seats in parliament. Due to opposition from the Five Star Movement, Salvini’s plan has for now failed.

Source: DW