Italy's Refusal to Welcome Rescue Ship Rekindles EU Debate over Migration Crisis
It didn’t take long for the new Italian government to hit the international headlines once again after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s cabinet was formally sworn in on June 1 (see previous article). Over the last week, newly appointed Interior Minister Matteo Salvini made the decision to turn away the migrant rescue boat Aquarius run by the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Franco-German SOS Mediterranee, with a total of 629 mainly Sub-Saharan Africans on board. The following days the boat, along with two additional vessels from Italy’s Coast Guard, reached Malta where it was denied access to a port. Finally, the ships docked on Sunday at the Spanish port of Valencia where the migrants’ ordeal finally ended one week after they had been rescued in the Mediterranean sea off Libya. Salvini stated that “He thanks the Spanish government, but wishes it will welcome, along with the Portuguese, Maltese and other European countries as well,’ 66 thousand more migrants". The news has been widely reported, among others by Reuters, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and the BBC.
The Italian government’s refusal to welcome migrants triggered violent reactions all over Europe, most notably the French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire who called Italian migration policy as ‘sickening’, while, as reported by the French government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Italy of being ‘cynical and irresponsible’ and pointed out that, ‘according to International maritime law, ships should be received in the nearest port’. "‘I’m not taking any lesson from France. Italy has nothing to learn from anyone in terms of solidarity" replied Salvini. While the Italian Minister of Economy Giovanni Tria postponed his meeting with his French counterpart Le Maire, Prime Minister Conte moved on from the issue and arrived in Paris on Friday, where he met French President Macron. Conte underlined how Spain’s offer to welcome migrants ‘goes in the direction we wanted. However, now it’s time to strongly ask for the Dublin Regulation Policy to be changed’. The Dublin Regulation, an EU law, entered into force on January 2014. It determines which Member State is obliged to handle asylum claims presented by people who arrive in Europe. Asylum requests are usually handled at the state level, which plays the most important role in managing migrants and/or refugees when they arrive in an EU state's national territory.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and President of France Emmanuel Macron (Source: La Stampa)
France agreed to welcome some of the migrants who disembarked in Valencia as long as they meet the requirements to be recognized as asylum seekers. Moreover, a French spokesperson reported that Conte and Macron expressed willingness to cooperate ‘in order to tackle some of Europe’s main challenges including migration, both in terms of overcoming the Dublin regulation as well as organizing reception centers in the countries migrants come from or transit to’.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini made clear that Italy will wait until June for EU migration policy to radically change before starting to send migrants back. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also addressed the issue, pledging Germany’s support to Italy in its call for solidarity and stating that she will focus on the issue of Libya, in collaboration with Conte, given that most of the migrants reaching Italy depart from there. This year year more than 58,000 migrants have arrived in Italy and 1,569 have died. The meetings between Merkel and Conte will be aimed at finding ways to stabilize Libya’s government, to better train its coast guard, and to carry out asylum-related proceedings there.
Following growing controversy over the U.S. government’s zero tolerance immigration policy and, in particular, Donald Trump's policy to separate 200 children from their parents after irregularly entering the U.S., Trump stated on Twitter that ‘we do not want what’s happening in Europe to happen in the U.S.’ He further stated that ‘Crime in Germany is way up’ (although data disprove his claim), and that ‘big mistakes [have] been made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!’
