France rejects rescue vessel Aquarius, as tensions rise in the Mediterranean

PARIS – The Maltese government announced on Tuesday that it would allow 58 migrants aboard Aquarius 2, a private rescue ship, to land temporarily on the insular nation's coast, after which they would be divided between France, France and France. Spain, Portugal and Germany. and Malta.

The decision ended a confrontation that lasted several days between European states and brought the responsibility of the last group of migrants rescued from the waters of the Libyan coast. The news came in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron's address to the United Nations in New York, which focused on the need for multilateralism, as well as the French authorities' refusal to dock the ship in France.

"Malta and France are mobilizing again to solve the stalemate of migrants," said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. "With Emmanuel Macron and other leaders, we want to show [a] multilateral approach [is] possible."

"Once again, a European solution has been found, humane and effective," French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said in a statement. "He respects two essential principles of responsibility and solidarity: landing in a safe harbor nearby and caring people on board."

Spain will take 15 of 58 passengers, according to a Spanish official quoted by Associated Press. Portugal will take 10 and France will take 18, according to the release of Philippe. Germany will take 15.

The ship, managed jointly by aid organizations SOS Mediterranee and Médecins sans Frontières, was the subject of a fierce debate between European governments for days. The United Nations has declared Libya a dangerous destination for migrants. In November 2017, video footage showed young sub-Saharan migrants sold in Libyan slave auctions. Nevertheless, European Union policy prefers that the Libyan coastguards send migrants back to North Africa, rather than bringing migrants to European shores through aid groups.

For months, Aquarius has been at the center of Europe's struggle to manage the political repercussions of a historic influx of migrants in 2015, even as the number of arrivals has fallen to pre-2015 levels.

Aquarius made headlines in June when Italy's new populist government refused to allow it to land in Sicily. Macron initially accused his Italian counterparts of "cynicism and irresponsibility" for refusing to admit Aquarius, but he was quickly criticized for doing the same. The ship was stuck off Malta at the time, with 629 migrants on board. He then had to sail three additional days to the port of Valencia, in the east of Spain.

The problem of migration has proved to be a major challenge for the overall tolerant image that Macron has sought to cultivate in a European climate marked by rising nationalism.

Macron is generally considered the main opponent of Hungary, Viktor Orban, and Italian Matteo Salvini, both of whom have adopted radical anti-migrant policies.

"He is at the head of the political forces that support immigration," Orban said in August, speaking with Salvini in Milan. "On the other hand, we want to stop illegal immigration."

But Macron's critics point out that his administration has pursued a program that has also made life more difficult for migrants in France. In August, the French parliament promulgated Macron's controversial asylum law, which favors political asylum seekers over economic migrants and facilitates the process of deporting unskilled persons.

"Although Macron presents itself as a welcoming and tolerant character on the European scene, unlike Orban and Salvini, in fact, it is the same thing, at least as far as relief operations are concerned," said Michaël Neuman, director of research division of Doctors Without Borders.

Others see a more calculated strategy designed to avoid a potentially larger influx of migrants in the future, even though the latest incident involved only 58 people.

"It has been a long time since it was the same as the actual number of people," said Elizabeth Collett, director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe based in Brussels. "This is the fear that saying yes once means that you will have to say yes in the future. That's what this conversation has become between states.

"Macron wants to do nothing – or do nothing – that would prevent him and France, to live a situation that would be extremely difficult to live two, three or four years later," said François Heisbourg, former French. Presidential advisor on national security and a political analyst based in Paris.

Relief vessels managed by aid groups withdrew from the Mediterranean under political pressure. Aquarius is one of the last and it is not certain that he will be able to continue his missions. The vessel is registered with the Panamanian government and Panama announced Saturday that it would begin withdrawing this listing. Speaking to the French newspaper Le Monde, Francis Vallat, head of SOS Mediterranee France, decried what he called a "political" operation against Italian threats against Panama.

Although the number of migrants arriving in Europe has decreased, mortality rates have not. About 1,600 migrants died in the Mediterranean in the first seven months of 2018, according to US data released this month.

This figure represents the highest mortality rate since the peak of the influx of migrants in Europe in 2015. The United Nations concluded that a "major factor" was the decrease in the rescue capacity off the Libyan coast.

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