Italy persistently kept its ports closed for the “Ocean Viking”, the situation on board the sea rescue ship came to a head. France is now taking on the ship with 234 refugees.
For the 234 migrants on board the sea rescue ship “Ocean Viking” it is redeeming news after a grueling stalemate in the Mediterranean. After Italy’s persistent refusal to allow the ship to enter one of its ports, France on Thursday gave the green light hoped for by the sea rescuers to accept the “Ocean Viking”.
The ship is expected on Friday morning in the military port of Toulon in southern France, said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. France and Germany would each take in a third of the refugees. Other EU countries are considering taking more migrants off the boat. In view of the humanitarian emergency on the ship, which has been at sea with the refugees for two weeks, France has exceptionally decided to take the ship on board.
At the same time, France sharpened its tone towards Italy and announced tough steps. Darmanin condemned the behavior of the neighboring country. This puts a strain on relations with France. He threatened that France would not take over 3,500 migrants from Italy by next summer, as agreed at a solidarity summit, because the country’s actions were violating international law. Darmanin called on Germany and the other states to follow the French approach.
Finally in safe haven
“We are very relieved that our ship has been assigned a safe port in France and that a critical situation has ended,” said the head of operations for the aid organization SOS Méditerranée, Xavier Lauth. But the solution had a bitter aftertaste: the women, children and men on board had endured a terrible ordeal. “The disembarkation nearly three weeks after her rescue, so far from the theater of operations in the central Mediterranean, is the result of a dramatic failure by all European states that have violated the law of the sea in unprecedented ways.”
According to media reports, Italy’s new ultra-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni scolded party friends on Wednesday that Paris was criticizing Rome on the migrant issue but was continually turning people away at the border near Nice. The Ansa news agency calculated that an average of 80 refugees and migrants per day were prevented from crossing the border by the French. France’s Interior Minister Darmanin promptly announced stricter controls at the border with Italy on Thursday in order to reduce the number of refugees entering France.
On Wednesday, the EU Commission sharply criticized the handling of the Italian authorities with the “Ocean Viking”. The situation on board has reached a critical level and must be addressed urgently to prevent a humanitarian tragedy. “The legal obligation to rescue and ensure the safety of life at sea is clear and unambiguous – regardless of the circumstances that put people in distress,” it said in a statement.
Source: Stern
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