After 20 days at sea in search of a safe port, the 234 migrants aboard the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship were received in Giens, Var. This is the first time that an ambulance ship operating off the Libyan coast has landed survivors in France, sparking a diplomatic crisis with Italy, which refused to welcome it.
In an interview in ParisianForeign Minister Catherine Colonna denounces the “lack of humanity” in the Italy of Giorgia Meloni, the far-right prime minister.
“The decision is shocking. These methods are not acceptable. It is a very strong disappointment in terms of substance,” replies the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Catherine Colonna affirms “that there will be consequences if Italy persists in this attitude (…) Italy respects neither international law nor the law of the sea. The rule is that of the safest port nearby: the ship was close to the Italian coast” . . For its part, Rome rejects criticism from Paris and advocates a “European solution.”
European “solidarity” mechanism
In reality, “it is about implementing a European decision that has already been taken,” Virginie Guiraudon, a CNRS specialist in migration issues, stressed to AFP, recalling that a European “solidarity” mechanism was adopted in June. She envisions a dozen states, including France, voluntarily taking in 8,000 migrants who arrived in so-called “frontline” countries like Italy, but only 117 have been resettled to date, angering Rome.
In this sense, Italy -accompanied by Greece, Malta and Cyprus- denounced this Saturday the system of management of the migratory flow in the European Union that gives it a preponderant weight and requested the intervention of the European Commission. These countries, the most exposed with Spain to the arrival of immigrants, have been advocating for years for a mandatory relocation system.
Challenging the “front line” countries
They denounce the idea that “countries of first entry may be the only possible European landing points for illegal immigrants” and point the finger at humanitarian NGOs whose “private vessels act in complete autonomy from the competent state authorities”.
They require that each state that flags a humanitarian vessel “effectively exercises jurisdiction and control” over it. Ships flying the French, Norwegian or German flag regularly dock in Italy, much to the annoyance of the authorities on the peninsula, who unsuccessfully demand that the states flying the flag of these ships take charge of the migrants.
Source: BFM TV
