Italy defends blocking migrants, sending message to EU

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended allowing only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from rescue ships, saying they are “not shipwrecked but migrants,” reports said.She also said the decision by health authorities to subsequently let hundreds of people off two charity vessels docked in Sicily was “bizarre,” according to media reports from a closed-door meeting.Meloni was speaking to lawmakers from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, amid fierce criticism and a row with France over her hard-right government’s treatment of migrants rescued by charity ships from the central Mediterranean.”The Italian government is complying with all international conventions,” she said, according to the ANSA news agency.The recent ban on two NGO ships “stopping in Italian waters, beyond the time necessary for rescue operations and to help fragile people, is justified and legitimate,” Meloni said.”On board these ships there are not shipwrecked (people) but migrants.”Rome allowed the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 ships to dock in Sicily at the weekend and disembark around 500 migrants, but another 250 were blocked from landing, until finally being let off late Tuesday.Meloni said the decision was taken by health authorities, “declaring them fragile on the basis of possible risks of psychological problems,” a choice “we found bizarre,” according to ANSA.Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Wednesday that Italy’s new approach is a signal to other European Union nations to better share the management of migrants crossing from North Africa.He highlighted France’s offer of a port of safety for one rescue ship that had been off Italy as proof the strategy was working — even though Paris has not confirmed such an offer, and has sharply criticized Rome’s approach.In an interview with regional journalists, Tajani was asked if the selective disembarkation was a signal, replying: “Indeed it was.French “President (Emmanuel) Macron’s decision to open the port of Marseille to the Ocean Viking shows that something is moving.”We are grateful to France which has shown its willingness to take a decision that reduces the pressure on Italy, demonstrating that it understands the need for a firmly supportive approach among EU countries.”Meloni’s office late Tuesday thanked France for taking in the Ocean Viking, which has 234 people on board and had been waiting off Sicily for days for permission to disembark them.French government spokesman Olivier Veran said Wednesday it remained in waters under Italian responsibility, saying Rome’s refusal to take in the ship was “unacceptable.”Tajani said he would raise the issue of immigration at a meeting of EU ministers next week.Rome wanted “an agreement to establish, on the basis of population, how migrants with a right to asylum are relocated to various countries.”Rome is also pressing for EU deals with North African countries to stop migrants leaving there and “stop traffickers, destroying the engines of their boats,” he said.