Italian migrant rescue ship
Mediterranea set off from Malta Friday to bring relief to Sea
Watch 3 which has been roaming the Mediterranean for 14 days
with 32 migrants aboard.
Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said Italy would take the women
and children off the boats.
Meanwhile Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris reiterated that the
port of Naples was open to migrants despite a ban imposed by
Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini.
He said he was determined to save the lives of "children who
are dying at sea".
Salvini said "I'm full of messages from Neapolitans who want
de Magistris to deal with the problems of Naples, the rubbish in
Naples, the traffic in Naples, jobs in Naples, public housing in
Naples; if he wants to be a yachtsman and open the port let him
do so, but the interior minister has competence over the port,
as he does over all Italian ports".
Salvini was backed by his ruling partner Luigi Di maio who
said Italian mayors can't open ports to migrants.
"There are mayors thinking of whether they should open or
close ports," said Di Maio, who is the other deputy premier as
well as industry and labour minister.
"I'd like to remind them that they have no authority by law
and this shows that all these statements are part of a great
opportunity to wage a little election campaign and ask citizens
for some votes".
Leftwing anti-mafia and pro-migrant writer Roberto Saviano on
Friday posted a video and a Twitter post calling Salvini a
"clown" and urging him to open Italian ports to two migrant
rescue ships carrying a total of 49 migrants.
"I address Minister Salvini," Saviano said.
"Let him stop playing the clown at the expense of people's
lives. Let him open the ports. Enough of this base propaganda,
enough waging an election campaign at the expense of others'
lives! #seawatch #seaeye."
Italian transport ministry sources said the Sea-Watch3 and
the Professor Albrecht Penck, belonging to NGOs Sea Watch and
Sea Eye) respectively, were a few hundred metres from the
Maltese coast in Maltese waters.
The ministry sources said they were receiving food and all
other assistance from Valletta.
The European Commission is continuing its "intense" contacts
with member States disposed to finding a solution for two
migrant rescue ships carrying a total of 49 migrants for almost
two weeks, EC spokeswomen Mina Andreeva told reporters on
Friday.
The Sea Watch has 32 migrants while the Sea Eye has a further
17, making 49 in all.
Andreeva said the EC was trying to find countries willing to
"find a solution on the rapid disembarkation of the people on
board the Sea Watch 3 and the Sea Eye".
On Thursday, she said, Migration Commissioner Dimitris
Avramopoulos urged member States to "help this joint effort to
safely disembark those on board as soon as possible.
"A series of member States has voiced willingness towards
this joint effort and to support Malta", she said.
The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner on Friday
called for an immediate berth for the 49 migrants aboard the Sea
Watch 3 and the Sea Eye.
"States must no further delay offering a safe port to the
children, women and men aboard the SeaWatch3 and the SeaEye,"
said Dunja Mijatovic.
"Their safety and health must not be further put at risk
leaving them adrift at sea," Mijatovic added.
"Humanity and compassion must prevail," the commissioner
said.
Migrant arrivals in Italy across the central Mediterranean
fell 80% in 2018, European border agency Frontex said Friday.
They fell to around 23,000, it said.
Arrivals at the EU's external borders fell to a five year low
of 150,000, with arrivals in Spain doubling for the second
straight year.
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