Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship

By Juan Medina

 

Migrants rest on board a NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue boat in the central Mediterranean Sea, November 24, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Medina

 

ON BOARD THE OPEN ARMS, OFF SICILY (Reuters) - Italian authorities have agreed to grant the Open Arms ship access to a port to disembark 62 African migrants it has been carrying since Wednesday, the founder of the Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday.

 

Oscar Camps said the vessel is set to dock at the southern Italian port of Taranto on Tuesday afternoon, although the eventual destination may change.

 

Italy initially refused entry for the group of 73 African migrants which the Open Arms crew plucked out of a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya, suggesting that the vessel should instead put them ashore at Tripoli.

 

However, earlier today the coastguard evacuated 11 of the group who required medical attention to the port of Augusta and Italy's Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese signalled the country might be softening its position.

 

Conditions aboard the vessels have been deteriorating as a powerful storm hit the Mediterranean, creating waves of up to 3 meters (10 feet).

 

A Reuters cameraman on the ship saw migrants huddled under a makeshift shelter on deck as the ship rolled through choppy waters and lightning flashed overhead.

 

Among the group of mostly Central and West Africans are three women, two toddlers and 24 unaccompanied minors who braved the dangerous crossing in search of a better life in Europe.

 

The Italian government has taken a hard line against immigration and has previously resisted attempts by rescue ships to land migrants in its territory.

 

A prolonged standoff with the Open Arms this summer was only resolved after a court ordered authorities to open a port, allowing 100 migrants to disembark.

 

On the Italian island of Lampedusa, the bodies of five women were retrieved early on Sunday after their boat capsized in bad sea conditions on Saturday, Italian Coast Guard said.

 

Three were found at sea and two more on a beach, a Coast Guard statement said. Searches were continuing but bad weather was complicating the effort.

 

The Coast Guard saved 149 people on Saturday, including 13 women and three children, from the sinking vessel after it was reported in distress less than a mile off Lampedusa.

 

Survivors said up to 20 people were unaccounted for, a judicial source said. Those missing at sea were from Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.

 

There have been nearly 1,000 confirmed deaths on the three main migration routes across the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

 

"We need decisive action from the Italian government and form Europe to stop human traffickers," Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello said from Barcelona, where he is meeting his counterpart Ada Colau to discuss the migrant crisis.

 

(Reporting by Juan Medina on the Open Arms and Wladimiro Pantaleone in Palermo, Writing by Nathan Allen and Giulio Piovaccari, Editing by Angus MacSwan, Mark Potter and Alistair Bell)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-25

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So sad to see this encouragement of illegal migration again. Salvini single handedly saved untold thousands of lives during his term, when he managed to get the evil trade of people smuggling almost entirely stopped by using a sensible no landing policy. During his term we never read about all the terrible and senseless mass drownings, because they weren't happening. A real case of cruel to be kind. And here we go again, flinging open the borders to all that make the crossing and encouraging any number of chancers to try their luck and risk their lives getting across the Med. 

The article states 'Looking for a better future' means they are economic migrants and not refugees. By that statement they should be sent home. And people now coming from Pakistan and the other week truck loads from Vietnam. Looks like this is now a worldwide problem started by the Arab Spring which our Governments are too blame but ordinary citizens have to live with the consequences of slowly losing their own culture. This is not going to end well

Most will eventually be on their way to Britain the land of free benifits ,unless your a pensioner who paid in all your life but now on a frozen pension and soon to get your dependants allowance stopped.

RIP Britain.

48 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

Most will eventually be on their way to Britain the land of free benifits ,unless your a pensioner who paid in all your life but now on a frozen pension and soon to get your dependants allowance stopped.

RIP Britain.

State support for illegal immigrants is almost non-existent; for those who's applications for asylum are under consideration, it is minimal.

 

Our government's treatment of pensioners is shameful - but vote tory, get screwed. Don't blame desperate people trying to escape circumstances; if you vote tory, you are responsible for the huge amount of indignities that our own people have to endure. 

12 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

State support for illegal immigrants is almost non-existent; for those who's applications for asylum are under consideration, it is minimal.

 

Our government's treatment of pensioners is shameful - but vote tory, get screwed. Don't blame desperate people trying to escape circumstances; if you vote tory, you are responsible for the huge amount of indignities that our own people have to endure. 

Doesn't matter how you vote, our pensions are never going to be in line with  the rest of Europe.

33 minutes ago, trigpoint said:

Doesn't matter how you vote, our pensions are never going to be in line with  the rest of Europe.

Why is or must that be so?

A bunch of migrants moaning about another bunch of people migrating.

53 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

State support for illegal immigrants is almost non-existent; for those who's applications for asylum are under consideration, it is minimal.

 

Our government's treatment of pensioners is shameful - but vote tory, get screwed. Don't blame desperate people trying to escape circumstances; if you vote tory, you are responsible for the huge amount of indignities that our own people have to endure. 

And if you've ever voted Labour. They both encourage mass immigration albeit for different reasons. However in the first year of CMD's Tory govt more immigrants arrived than under the previous Labour government's last year of rule.

47 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

And if you've ever voted Labour. They both encourage mass immigration albeit for different reasons. However in the first year of CMD's Tory govt more immigrants arrived than under the previous Labour government's last year of rule.

Well, it's not a mystery that the richest economies (not countries, economies) have been destabilising weaker countries for centuries for their own gain.

No surprise we see lots of immigrants fleeing their countries looking for a better life, in the end any kind of conflict is beneficial to the ones pulling the strings.

1 hour ago, yogi100 said:

And if you've ever voted Labour. They both encourage mass immigration albeit for different reasons. However in the first year of CMD's Tory govt more immigrants arrived than under the previous Labour government's last year of rule.

I suspect, however, that the UK government's shameful treatment of pensioners and DWP claimants in general has less to do with immigration than with political ideology. 

26 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Well, it's not a mystery that the richest economies (not countries, economies) have been destabilising weaker countries for centuries for their own gain.

No surprise we see lots of immigrants fleeing their countries looking for a better life, in the end any kind of conflict is beneficial to the ones pulling the strings.

Amazing, blame other countries for their plight.  The reality is that countries like Japan have zero natural resources, little land but through hard work, investment, limited population growth, and education have the worlds 4th largest economy.  By contrast Africa with the planets most abundant source of natural resources and vast land is the poorest in the world and their plight is the result of the economic powers destabilizing Africa.  

Taking in indigent migrants is akin to giving milk to stray kittens.  You soon will have more stray kittens at your door also begging to be taken care of.  Remember, out of well intentioned but misguided compassion putting one too many people in a life boat and everyone drowns.  

4 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

Amazing, blame other countries for their plight.  The reality is that countries like Japan have zero natural resources, little land but through hard work, investment, limited population growth, and education have the worlds 4th largest economy.  By contrast Africa with the planets most abundant source of natural resources and vast land is the poorest in the world and their plight is the result of the economic powers destabilizing Africa.  

Taking in indigent migrants is akin to giving milk to stray kittens.  You soon will have more stray kittens at your door also begging to be taken care of.  Remember, out of well intentioned but misguided compassion putting one too many people in a life boat and everyone drowns.  

Well, you do have some point in general, but Japan's economy will face some hard time in the near future because of limited population growth.

I also agree that African countries should take at least part of the blame for being the poorest.

Yet there are not easy solutions to the plight of immigrants, and it's really heartbreaking to see boats full of people sinking in the sea.

3 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

Most will eventually be on their way to Britain the land of free benifits ,unless your a pensioner who paid in all your life but now on a frozen pension and soon to get your dependants allowance stopped.

RIP Britain.

So let’s see your evidence that ‘Most will eventually be on their way to Britain’.

 

Or ar you trotting our more unsubstantiated xenophobic nonsense?

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

A bunch of migrants moaning about another bunch of people migrating.

But the moaning bunch are 'paying-migrants'.

What....!!!! Not blaming President Trump for this. 

10 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

So let’s see your evidence that ‘Most will eventually be on their way to Britain’.

 

Or ar you trotting our more unsubstantiated xenophobic nonsense?

They come to the uk for the Morris dancing which is banned in Muslim countries.