The tough stance Premier Giorgio
Meloni's government has adopted on NGO-run search-and-rescue
(SAR) ships has sparked tension between Rome and Paris, with the
French government blasting Italy's refusal to allow the Ocean
Viking carrying 234 asylum seekers to dock in an Italian port.
The Ocean Viking was heading to French territorial waters on
Wednesday after Italy ignored its appeals for a port of safety
for around three weeks following rescues of people in the
southern Mediterranean.
"The ship is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are
extremely clear European rules that were accepted by the
Italians," French government spokesman Olivier Veran was quoted
as saying by AFP.
He added that "the current attitude of the Italian government,
notably its declarations and refusal to accept the ship," was
"unacceptable."
On Tuesday the Italian authorities finally allowed around 250
asylum seekers to leave two other NGO-run ships, Humanity 1 and
the Geo Barents.
They docked in Catania at the weekend but the government
initially only allowed people considered vulnerable to land and
had told the ships to return to international waters with the
others still on board.
SOS Méditerranée, the French NGO that runs the Ocean Viking, has
said it should reach international waters off Corsica by
Thursday after its appeals to Italy for a port of safety were
met with "deafening silence".
"We are still off the coast of Sicily, but we are moving towards
Corsica where there is the first port of safety, excluding those
of Italy, which did not assign us one," SOS Méditerranée
activists on the ship said.
"We will leave the Italian SAR zone and reach French waters and
it has not been ruled out that Marseilles could be the final
destination".
On Tuesday Meloni thanked France for "sharing the responsibility
of the migratory emergency, which up to now has been on the back
of Italy and a few other States" after it was reported Paris had
agreed to accept the Ocean Viking.
"The immigration emergency is a European issue and it should be
address as such," she said.
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