ROME — Spain stepped up Monday and offered to take in a rescue ship carrying more than 600 migrants after Italy and Malta refused. The diplomatic standoff left the migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea and laid bare the brass-knuckled negotiating tactics of Italy’s new anti-immigrant government.
The U.N. refugee agency, the European Union, Germany and humanitarian groups had all demanded that Italy and Malta put their domestic politics aside and urgently consider the plight of the 629 migrants, among them more than 120 children, seven pregnant women and people suffering from hypothermia.
Italy thanked Spain’s new Socialist prime minister for the offer to receive aid group SOS Mediterranee’s ship at the port of Valencia and announced that it had forced a turning point in Europe’s migrant crisis.
Politics aside, it wasn’t certain if the voyage to Spain was feasible given how far that was from the ship’s location and how long the rescue vessel had been at sea. The Aquarius on Monday was more than 750 nautical miles from Valencia and by late Monday said it hadn’t received instructions yet to head to Spain.
“It means that we need at least two more days of sailing, which is not possible today with 629 people on board,” SOS Mediterranee Maritime Operations Manager Antoine Laurent said. “The situation is stable but it cannot run” forever.
Doctors Without Borders, which has staff aboard the Aquarius, said the rescued migrants were stable for now but that food and water on the ship would run out by Monday night. It said some passengers had seawater in their lungs and chemical burns caused when gas mixes with seawater. Malta sent a motorboat with food and water to resupply the migrant ship.
Despite the diplomatic pressure, Italy and Malta held firm, with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini clearly using the high seas drama as a pretext to force the hand of Italy’s European neighbors. Italy has long demanded that the EU change its migration policy and make good on promises to accept more refugees, saying that Italy has been left alone to coordinate rescues and accept tens of thousands of migrants a year for asylum processing.
“Enough!” Salvini said Monday. “Saving lives is a duty, but transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp isn’t.” He tweeted: #Chiudiamoiporti. “We’re closing the ports.”
His co-deputy premier, Luigi Di Maio, claimed that Monday was a turning point in Europe’s divisive debate over immigration.
“From now on, Italy isn’t alone, and we hope other European leaders follow” Spain’s example, said Di Maio, who along with the League is seeking to renegotiate the EU regulations that determine which EU country is responsible for processing asylum claims.
