450 migrants land in Italy, five EU states take 50 each

Italy allowed two EU border services ships to dock on Monday, allowing some 450 migrants to land after five other countries had agreed to host 50 of them.

"Today, for the first time, we can say that migrants have landed Europe has been complaining for years that its EU counterparts have left it to itself since hundreds of thousands of people have landed on its shores since 2013.

The new populist The government of Rome, which came to power on 1 June, has taken a much stricter stance, avoiding its role traditional coordination of rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean outside its search and rescue area

The Catholic daily Avvenire, former Coast Guard Chief Vittorio Alessandro, highlighted the dilemma posed to his former colleagues by the change of politi that [1965-19006] "At sea, the rule is to place the rescue first". "I share a discomfort with all the sailors with whom I worked, a great feeling of helplessness."

The ships had spent two days in the port of Pozzallo, in southern Sicily, after a trial during which they were detained in Libya. the authorities were finally given the green light to allow them to disembark on Sunday after five EU countries – France, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Germany – agreed to go ahead. accommodate 50 migrants each.

In Pozzallo, several of them The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that migrants, mainly from Eritrea and Somalia, were in a weak state, suffering from malnutrition , dehydration, scabies and abuse in informal detention centers in Libya.

They left the Libyan port of Zouara Wednesday in a wooden boat, quickly missing food and water. Early Friday, they spotted a boat, prompting some thirty of them to jump overboard to try to reach it.

Four of them drowned, all Somalis, IOM said. The youngest was 17 years old.

It is likely that the boat was aware of the presence of migrants. The Italian authorities stated that they spotted the boat at dawn in waters under Maltese jurisdiction.

An Italian police ship and a British ship working for the Frontex Border Agency finally embarked them this weekend. The European Commission has called for "sustainable" and "mutually acceptable" solutions to the problem of migrants, advocating "controlled centers" in the EU where rescued migrants will be transferred before being sent to different Member States from the EU.