The authorities of Italy and Malta have rejected a private rescue ship carrying 629 migrants to dock at the harbours of the two.
The vessel has remained on a northward course in the Mediterranean Sea after the authorities failed to give it permission to disembark the migrants.
Aid group SOS Mediterranee said the passengers on its ship, the Aquarius, included 400 people who were picked up by the Italian navy, the country’s coast guard and private cargo ships and transferred.
The rescue ship’s crew itself pulled 229 migrants from the water or from traffickers’ unseaworthy boats Saturday night, including 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women.
The Aquarius and its passengers were caught up in a crackdown swiftly implemented by the right-wing partner in Italy’s new populist government, which has vowed to stop the country from becoming the `’refugee camp of Europe.”
“Malta takes in nobody. France pushes people back at the border, Spain defends its frontier with weapons,” Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League party wrote on Facebook. “From today, Italy will also start to say no to human trafficking, no to the business of illegal immigration.”
More than 600,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat from Africa in the past five years. Numbers have dropped dramatically in recent months, but rescues have increased in recent days, presenting Salvini with his first test as a minister.
“My aim is to guarantee a peaceful life for these youths in Africa and for our children in Italy,” Salvini said, using the Twitter hashtag “We are shutting the ports”.
However, Salvini does not have authority over the ports and it was not immediately clear if his line would hold. The mayor of Naples, who has repeatedly clashed with the League leader, said he would welcome in the humanitarian boat.
The Maltese government rejected a request to take the boat, saying international law required that the migrants should be taken to Italian ports.
Halbeeg News and News agencies
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