New hardline Italian government shuts ports to migrants

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Italy refused to allow a migrant ship carrying over 600 rescued migrants and refugees to enter any of its ports in the country's southern regions, and urged Malta to receive them, Italian government sources said on Sunday.

Malta brushed off the request, saying it had nothing to do with the rescue operation, opening the prospect of a diplomatic rift between the two European Union allies.

The move by Italy’s new interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who is also head of the far-right League, represents an opening gambit to make good on his electoral promises to halt the flow of migrants into the country.

“Malta takes in nobody. France pushes people back at the border, Spain defends its frontier with weapons,” Salvini wrote on Facebook. “From today, Italy will also start to say no to human trafficking, no to the business of illegal immigration.”

Italy's new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini arrives at the reception center (CPSA) in Pozzallo, Sicily, June 3,2018. /VCG Photo

European charity SOS Mediterranee said on Twitter earlier on Sunday that its rescue boat Aquarius had taken on board 629 migrants, including 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children and seven pregnant women.

Italian authorities said Malta was to be considered "the safest landing point," since the ship would be at about 69.2 km from the port of Valletta.

This was the first time Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's recently installed government – formed on a coalition of the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement – decided to turn away migrants and refugees saved during a Mediterranean crossing.

The two parties forged an alliance on the base of a platform including a crackdown on irregular migrants, and a halt to the reception of those trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

The 629 people had been saved in six separate missions carried out earlier this week by SOS Mediterranee, Italy's army, coast guard and merchant vessels, and later moved onto the Aquarius to be brought to land.

Despite Italy's insistence that the Maltese government declare Malta the safest port of call, the country has so far refused to do so.

"The rescue happened in the Libyan search and rescue area and it was coordinated by the rescue coordination center in Rome. Malta is neither the coordinating authority and has no competence on this case," a Maltese government spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, three rescue ships managed by German charities reached Italy's ports of Pozzallo and Reggio Calabria, and were allowed to disembark some 467 migrants and refugees overall.

Italy has long been at the forefront of the migrant crisis, and especially since the closure of the so-called Balkan route in spring 2016.

It saw the number of migrant and refugee arrivals decrease from mid-2017 onwards, after signing a controversial deal with Libya's authorities and factions to curb departures from the Libyan coast.

From January 1 to June 8, the country registered 13,808 arrivals, marking a 77.47 percent and 71.94 percent decrease compared to the same period of 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Overall, it received 119,369 migrants and refugees in 2017, and 181,436 in 2016.

(Cover photo: Migrants wait to disembark the ONG Aquarius at the Port of Catania in Catania, Italy, May 10, 2018. /VCG Photo )

Source(s): Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency