The migrant issue off the coast of Sicily has not been released: for days in the Mediterranean there have been three ships managed by as many NGOs. On board the Ocean Viking of Sos Méditerranée there are 234 migrants, on the Humanity 1 of SOS Humanity 179, and on the Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders 572. At the moment, Italy has no intention of communicating a safe port for disembarkation, but France has invited our country to do so.
After Germany, Norway too says no to Italy’s request to take charge of migrants rescued by NGO ships that have been waiting for a landing port in the Mediterranean for more than ten days while the weather forecasts are scary with waves six meters high. waited for this evening.
As Berlin had already done, Norway too recognizes “the important contribution of Italy in the management of migratory flows across the Mediterranean”, but the response is therefore one of total closure to the Italian request to the flag states to take charge of the approximately 1,000 migrants waiting for disembarkation. This request is a prelude to the next move of the Italian government, that is to ask the flag States to make the rescued migrants request for asylum on board the ships in such a way as to entrench the competence on their management in those countries and allow, only later, disembarkation in the nearest Italian ports.
The French government “has no doubts” that Italy “will respect international law” and welcome the Ocean Viking, the search and rescue ship managed by Sos Mediterranee, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told French media . On board the Ocean Viking the 234 migrants traveling on six boats in distress in the central Mediterranean, rescued between 22 and 26 October. “France is ready to welcome” the 234 migrants “like any other country”, French Solidarity Minister Jean-Christophe Combe then told France Info, underlining that it is a “question of humanity”. “There must be a port in Europe or France that can welcome them, that can cure them – continued Combe -. We will not let them die in the middle of the Mediterranean, we will not let them go adrift ”.
Meanwhile, in the hotspot of Lampedusa, compared to the 400 places foreseen, there are 1,372 migrants. Given the situation, the Prefecture of Agrigento has ordered the transfer of 360 people to Porto Empedocle. Unfortunately, in this transfer there are also the coffins of two 20-day-old twins who died of hypothermia and of two children of 10 months and two years old killed by the fire that broke out on the boat during their crossing.
#Migrants #France #Italy #part #ready #Norway