Mediterranean: A Ship Saves 60 Refugees – Italy and Malta Deny Admission

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E in a Spanish rescue ship took in the Mediterranean near Libya 60 refugees and migrants. Then, on Saturday, there was a new political dispute between Italy and Malta, this time on who should take the ship "Open Arms" in their country. The crew claimed to have saved the migrants after seeing a floating boat in the sea.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Facebook that the ship had picked up migrants in the Libyan security zone. "The nearest port is Malta, the organization and the flag of the ship are Spanish," said the politician of the xenophobic party Lega. "You can forget to enter an Italian port."

The Maltese Minister of the Interior, Michael Farruggia, does not agree: "Stop spreading false information and call Malta without reason," he wrote to Salvini. He added a map to his tweet stating that the rescue had taken place in the Libyan search and rescue zone and in the waters between Libya and Lampedusa.

On Saturday evening, the Spanish government agreed to take the ship. The "Open Arms" have the right to dock in Barcelona, ​​said a spokesman for the cabinet of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The ship will take four days to reach Barcelona. In Spain, more migrants arrived by land and sea this year than in Italy. Spain's new socialist government has called on other EU countries to treat rescued migrants with dignity.

The "open arms" are led by the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms. She said that the organization will stick to "saving the lives of invisible people" despite the many "obstacles". "Their stories of what they lived in Libya are scary," the organization said. According to humanitarian organizations, refugees in Libya are housed in camps in inhumane conditions and are often victims of violence, rape and slavery.

Salvini accuses tug aid agencies

He is the third relief ship deployed in the Mediterranean. that in the last three weeks has faced a negative attitude of Salvini. Salvini said that no other rescuer of humanitarian groups would disembark in Italy. In recent years, private rescue vessels have saved hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from smugglers.

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Salvini accuses relief vessels sailing in the Mediterranean to help smugglers bring refugees to Europe. On Friday, he said that Italian ports would be closed to aid agencies "all summer". The new Italian government had already refused aid ships with refugees in recent weeks. The ship "Lifeline", which had been waiting for days in the Mediterranean with more than 230 refugees on board, had finally landed in Malta this week

. Salvini's attitude provoked divisions within the Italian populist coalition government. The Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Roberto Fico, of the five-star Movement coalition party, said after visiting a migrant reception center in a Sicilian port city that he would not close the ports. Libya "is not a safe place," Fico told reporters. He called for more solidarity with migrants. These have "dramatic stories that touch the heart."

Salvini supported on Twitter that the "Open Arms" welcomed migrants before A Libyan vessel can intervene in a search and rescue area. The captain of the Open Arms, Marco Martinez, said that he had informed the Rome-based Maritime Coordination Center about the migrants and that he had been ordered to do so. call the Libyan maritime authorities. They would not have answered by phone or radio. The Rome authorities then told him that he had to decide whether the rescue would be carried out, Martinez said.

From a nearby rescue ship, a Libyan Coast Guard vessel approached the "open arms" when the discovery of the canoe was reported. But just before the place of rescue, he returned and drove away. He ordered the "Open Arms" to return to Spain.

EU countries agreed at their summit, Thursday and Friday, for increased defense of refugees at the external borders. They also want to welcome migrants in reception centers outside the EU

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