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MADRID – Latest news on migration to Europe (all times local):
18 : 00
The Spanish maritime rescue service announced that it had captured 63 people trying to reach the southern coast of the Mediterranean.
Saturday's rescues come as the Western Mediterranean route to Europe – by sea and by land – this year has exceeded the arrivals of North Africa in Italy as part of the political tightening of Rome on migration. ervice says that 58 migrants were found in the Strait of Gibraltar traveling in three boats that left North Africa.
Five more people were rescued further east in the Mediterranean Sea, near the province of Murcia. A lifeboat and a helicopter were looking for another boat in the area
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12:05 pm
A Spanish rescue boat ripped off 60 migrants from a canoe tire patched up in the Mediterranean Sea Libya, igniting another political line between Italy and Malta on which should let the boat help dock.
The ship, Open Arms, led by the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms, said it rescued the migrants on Saturday – including three-year-old child and three teenagers – after spotting a rubber boat patched with guns. adhesive tape floating in the sea. All the migrants appeared in good health.
The Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, quickly declared that the lifeboat "could forget to arrive in an Italian port" and affirmed that the boat had to go to Malta, the port the most close. But Malta pushed back quickly, his Interior Minister claiming that the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, was closer to the boat
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12:05 pm
Although the number of migrants Arriving in Europe is strongly down this year from 2017, the subject of migration has deepened the political divisions in the European Union.
The Open Arms is the third rescue ship operated by humanitarian groups in the central Mediterranean to get into Italy's sights. The repression of Interior Minister Matteo, Salvini, in the last three weeks
Salvini has sworn that no more rescue ship from humanitarian groups will dock in Italy. But cracks began to appear between the two parties in the new Italian populist coalition government on Salvini 's harsh approach.
Roberto Fico, Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament and an important figure in the 5-Star Movement, the ruling coalition's main partner. told reporters after inspecting a migrant reception center in a Sicilian port city that "I would not close ports."
Fico told reporters that Libya "is not a safe place." who said he had "dramatic stories that touch the heart."
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12:05 pm
While European politicians were quarreling, these migrants rescued on Saturday by the Open Arms aid ship were jubilant, jumping, chanting and
The eyes of a 9-year-old boy shone when the Open Arms crew called him "captain" after he had been allowed to sit in the seat of the captain on deck for a few minutes. Krisley Dokouada, of the Central African Republic, was rescued with her parents
. Six Libyans and nationals from Mali, Eritrea, Egypt, Bangladesh, South Sudan and Guinea were rescued on Saturday.
Legislators aboard a companion ship, the Astral. Legislators and an AP reporter then boarded the Open Arms to meet the migrants and the rescue team.
A Spanish jurist, Javi Lopez, said that the Spanish authorities were studying the possibility of welcoming migrants. providing the safe port.
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D & # 39; Emilio reported from Rome. Stephen Calleja in Malta and Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This document may not be published, distributed, rewritten or redistributed.
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