Tensions escalate between France and Italy over migrant rescue boat

Tensions rose between France and Italy on Wednesday over the fate of an NGO ship carrying 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, with Paris calling the Italian government’s reluctance to dock the ship “unacceptable” .

It is the latest controversy in Europe in recent years over where migrants rescued while trying to enter the continent from North Africa should land. Italy is increasingly uneasy about having to take in most of the saved.

At issue is the Viking of the Seas, a charity ship that has left Sicilian waters for France after unsuccessfully trying to land in Italy since late October.

The Norwegian-flagged vessel, operated by European humanitarian organisation SOS Mediterranee, has asked France to accept it and will head to Corsica on Thursday.

“It’s all about Italian obstruction,” Sophie Beau, director of SOS Med, told AFP, adding that it had made 43 official requests but had gone unanswered.

Along the northern coast of Sicily, where the ship was heading for Sardinia and perhaps France, the charity also requested access to port.

As of Wednesday morning, French officials “have not yet received an official response,” according to Beau.

Even so, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said in an interview that France has made Marseille a safe haven, the office of the country’s new far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said late on Tuesday. statement as well.

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However, Paris has yet to confirm this, and on Wednesday government spokesman Olivier Whelan said the Viking of the Seas remained in Italian territorial waters.

He considered “the current attitude of the Italian government, especially its statement and refusal to accept the ship, as “unacceptable”.

The Viking of the Seas is the last of four NGO ships that have rescued more than 1,000 migrants stranded on dilapidated ships in the past two weeks, the latest of tens of thousands to sail to Europe in recent years. The most recent of the people.

(input from institution)