As Malta accepts migrants, charities press governments
MADRID — Pledges by six European countries to accept over 350 migrants from a rescue ship in the central Mediterranean on Friday capped weeks of standoffs between charities and governments that have dramatically exposed Europe’s inability to deal with sea migration from Africa.
The tension is likely to continue. The increasingly fewer charity groups running rescue missions are vowing to return to maritime routes from Libya. And the European Union is making little progress toward a permanent system to organize sea rescues, especially one that would force all members to comply.
Meanwhile, Italy’s hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, blames the charities for aiding human trafficking mafias, part of a tough approach that has pushed up his popularity — and emboldened him to provoke a government crisis that could result in early elections.
The Maltese armed forces were expected to take ashore 356 passengers stuck on the Ocean Viking for the past two weeks, the prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, said. He said all the migrants will be distributed to France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania.
Until his announcement, Maltese authorities had denied the ship access and Italy had ignored its requests for docking, in a similar way that at least 19 ships — including fishing vessels, coast guard patrol boats and the EU’s own border control fleet — have faced varying degrees of difficulties to disembark over the past year.
On Tuesday, a Sicilian prosecutor ordered the evacuation of 83 rescued aboard the Open Arms, a ship run by a Spanish aid group, after 19 days at sea.
The two charities running the Ocean Viking welcomed Friday’s agreement but called for a permanent, sustainable solution for taking in rescued migrants.
“We are relieved that the long ordeal for the 356 people on board with us is finally over, but was it necessary to keep them waiting for two weeks of torment?” said Jay Berger, the onboard operations manager for Doctors Without Borders.
Some 580 people are believed to have died this year in waters between Italy, Malta and Libya, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. While that number is lower than last year’s death toll of 1,130 from January through August, the rate of deaths per estimated crossing is higher.