Spain offers to take in migrant ship carrying 629 people

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Europe

Spain offered Monday to take in a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants aboard after Italy and Malta refused to let the vessel dock in their ports.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: "It is our obligation to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer 'a safe harbor' to these people, thus complying with obligations of international law."

He also explained that the Spanish city of Valencia (in the east) would let the ship dock.

The president of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, Ximo Puig, said the permission for the ship to dock had been granted by the country's Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo.

Calvo said Valencia would be the port to receive them as part of a "humanitarian operation, which the government will undertake hand in hand with the United Nations," according to Puig.

However, local media reported that the captain of the ship, Aquarius, has not been notified of the new destination, Valencia, a journey that could last around three days.

The ship Aquarius wandered for over 36 hours in the central Mediterranean, since after Italy and Malta both refused to let it reach their ports and disembark the 629 people rescued during six missions off the coasts of Libya last week.

A handout picture taken in the search and rescue zone in the Mediterranean sea on June 9, 2018, and released on June 11, 2018, by SOS Mediterranee NGO shows migrants being rescued before boarding the French NGO's ship Aquarius. /VCG Photo

The refusal to accept the Aquarius in Italy was the first major anti-migrant move since far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini took office this month.

Salvini said it was the response to stop the business of illegal immigration. He tweeted "VICTORY" after two days of confrontation with Malta over the migrants ended with Spain's offer of help.

Spain's decision was a step in the right direction, according to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was recently appointed as the head of a populist coalition government.

"We asked for a sign of solidarity from the European Union (EU) on this emergency," Conte told reporters, as he visited people in the quake-hit town of Accumoli in central Italy.

"I cannot but thank the Spanish authorities for having accepted our appeal," Conte said.

Since 2014, it had been a usual procedure for ships carrying out search-and-rescue missions in central Mediterranean to bring to Italy the people saved during the perilous sea crossing from northern African coasts.

That meant Italy became the first point of entry for a large majority of migrants and asylum-seekers heading to Europe, and especially since the closure of the so-called Balkan route in 2016.

However, the new Italian government was forged on a political platform promising a tough approach on irregular immigration, and a stop in the reception of migrants and refugees.

Source(s): AFP ,Xinhua News Agency