Ocean Viking: France Blast Authorities In Italy Over 234 Migrants At Sea

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Migrants and refugees from one of four charity rescue boats that Italy had denied a safe port to, were allowed to disembark on Tuesday after a week at sea, according to the German group that operates the Ocean Viking ship, Aljazeera reports.

According to the report by aljazeera, the Rise Above Ocean Viking boat docked in the port of Reggio Calabria, shortly after dawn and the 89 people it had picked up in the Mediterranean were let ashore.

“We are relieved that the rescued people are finally safe on land,” the German charity Mission Lifeline, which runs the Rise Above, said in a statement, condemning what it called an “undignified political game” that had kept them at sea.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s two-week-old government has moved swiftly to impose a crackdown on boat migration, telling charity vessels that regularly ply the Mediterranean to take rescued people to other countries.

In a sign that its campaign against the non-governmental groups was having an impact, Spanish charity Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario said it would postpone a planned sea rescue mission due to the risk of its ship being seized by Italian authorities.

Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-migrant League party, cheered the development, tweeting: “Onwards like this. Italy will not be an accomplice of human trafficking. Is anyone starting to get this?”

Meloni’s government initially kept four ships at sea and although it allowed two to dock in Sicily at the weekend, it has only let off the most fragile people, mainly women and children, leaving about 250 still on board.

The captains of the two boats, one operated by German charity SOS Humanity and the other by France’s Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), have refused orders to return to sea again with the remaining migrants and are challenging the edict in the courts.

A third ship, Ocean Viking, which is run by French charity SOS Mediterranee, remains off the coast of Sicily with about 234 people on board. They were picked up off Libya 17 days ago and have repeatedly requested access to an Italian port.

The Rise Above is a much smaller boat than the three other rescue ships and its passengers had suffered badly in recent heavy seas, Mission Lifeline said.

Ocean Viking: France Vs Italy Disagreement:

According to the report by AFP while Italy welcomed the opening of the French doors to the ship Ocean Viking, the French government has denounced “unacceptable behavior” by the Italian authorities.

The showdown continues between Italy and France over the ship Ocean Viking, which has been carrying 234 migrants who have survived for 18 days . On Tuesday evening, the newly elected President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, welcomed France’s decision to open its doors to the boat. However, France has never confirmed welcoming the Ocean Viking in one of its ports.

The French government then denounced on Tuesday evening the “unacceptable behavior” of the Italian authorities who refused to allow the ship to dock.

The attitude of the Italian authorities is “contrary to the law of the sea and the spirit of European solidarity”, a French government source told French TV station BFMTV.

A diplomatic crisis to come?

“We expect something else from a country which is today the first beneficiary of the European solidarity mechanism,” added this source.

“We did not wait for the Meloni government to put in place European solidarity in the management of migratory flows”, for his part declared a source from the Ministry of the Interior to BFMTV.

Statements that suggest that a diplomatic crisis is emerging between Rome and Paris, just weeks after the victory of the post-fascist party of Giorgia Meloni in the parliamentary elections .

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