The Open Arms ship drifts into an ocean of accusations …

From Madrid

The drift of the ship Open Arms, which has been in the Mediterranean for 18 days with 107 migrants on board, has caused numerous accusations between Spain, Italy and the NGO itself that runs the boat.

This morning, the Vice President of the Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo, blamed the Italian executive for its refusal to allow the Open Arms to land on the Italian island of Lampedusa; and, at the same time, he stressed that the NGO had not landed in Malta a few days ago, year when it received a favorable response from that country.

"He could have entered Malta (open arms). This solution was there and we were working all the time because the Maltese government always said that it did not stay with the migrants, but that the distribution was made, "said Calvo about an agreement between France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg. and Romania, to welcome migrants.

The NGO said that Malta had agreed to host only one group of migrants and for this reason had traveled to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Located about 800 meters away for four days, the boat asks the Italian government to respect the legal decisions of her country forcing her to provide a safe landing port. A result that seems unlikely in light of the latest statements of the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini.

Launched in the electoral race with a speech against migrants arriving through the Mediterranean, Salvini said this morning that open arms should have landed in Spain. "In 18 days, they went and returned three times from Ibiza to Formentera (Spanish Isles)," he told the radio. According to the Italian vice president, the decision not to use a Spanish port is the "political battle" that the NGO is conducting with its government.

Indeed, the Spanish vice president has sowed doubts about the behavior of Open Arms after the government of his country offered Sunday at the port of Algeciras to welcome migrants, and the NGO l & rsquo; Rejected because of the "critical" state of the population. edge, and the remoteness of the site, which would require to sail about six days. In view of this response, the Spanish Government has proposed two other alternative ports in the Balearic Islands, which would reduce travel by half. However, Open Arms rejected this possibility. According to the founder of the NGO, Spain was "late" in its intention to help.

One of the last solutions suggested by the rescuers is to transfer migrants to Catania (in Sicily). From there, they would be flown to Madrid. According to the head of the Open Arms mission in Italy, Riccardo Gatti, the operation would cost less than renting a boat to transport it, just like the Acquarius ship from last year.

On the other hand, he left the opportunity to Italy and Spain to provide the necessary conditions and resources to Open Arms to route the migrants to the nearest port of Spain , within the limits of those proposed by the Iberian country. The problem of the latter option is the state of relations between the two nations of southern Europe. In the Spanish afternoon, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that Matteo Salvini was "a shame for humanity" and accused him of campaigning with the lives of migrants while not respecting Italian justice and violating a "minimum". common denominator of the European Union ".

The position of Spain has degenerated in recent days. On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already announced its intention to study the possibility of acting in front of Brussels and the institutions that guarantee human rights because of Italy's refusal to do so. Authorize the landing of the Open Arms. For his part, Vice President Calvo said this morning that the Italian government was violating all European standards.

With this new crossroads of accusations between Spain, Italy and the NGO, the migration crisis is once again on the front page of the media and shows that the European Union has no 39 has not found a definitive solution for the thousands of impoverished migrants seeking to reach European soil after escaping from their countries of Africa and the Middle East. Indeed, the future president of the bloc committee, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a recent interview with The country that the Dublin agreement, which regulates the arrival of irregular migrants into the Union, seemed "a failure" and that he did not understand how it had been signed.

This regulation establishes that the nation in which the migrant arrives must be responsible for badisting him, verifying his right or not to seek asylum, and returning him to his country of origin s & # 39; He can not grant this right. A regulation that the Spanish government has asked to amend and that the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, used as a flag to justify the closure of its ports to migrants and to impose on the European Union of find other solutions to the challenge of migration.