The European Commission
last night received a request to coordinate the sharing of
migrants on board the Ocean Viking NGO rescue ship, a spokesman
said Thursday.
He said a number of countries have already said they will
take some of the migrants, once they have come off the ship
operated by SOS Mediterranée and Doctor Without Borders.
Premier Giuseppe Conte's office, after a migrant summit with
relevant ministers, said "there has been a strong take-up of the
mechanism of redistribution already activated in the last few
hours by Italy.
"We have heard that already several states have come forward,
which will permit an adequate and swift solution.
Conte on Thursday held a migrant summit with Interior
Minister Luciana Lamorgese, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio,
Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini and Transport and
Infrastructure Minister Paola De Micheli.
Sources said the meeting was called so that the new
government can get down to work on the migrant issue.
The new 5-Star-Democratic Party (M5S-PD) government has
signalled it may break with some of former interior minister and
League leader Matteo Salvini's tough anti-migrant policies.
These included closing Italy's ports to NGO run migrant
rescue ships.
There is currently one NGO ship at sea that has asked for
a safe port from Italy, the Ocean Viking, after another one, the
Alan Kurdi, offloaded its migrants on Malta.
So far ministers Lamorgese, Guerini and De Micheli have kept
a low profile on the issue of granting access.
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