[ARABNEWS] Italia pressured the Netherlands on Friday to accept 47 migrants colonists, including eight unaccompanied minors, who have spent seven days at sea aboard a humanitarian rescue ship that has been allowed to enter Italian territorial waters due to bad weather conditions.
The German aid group Sea-Watch tweeted that it has received no response to multiple requests for the Dutch-flagged Sea Watch-3 vessel carrying people rescued off Libya on Saturday to access a port. The boat was permitted to enter Italian waters Friday because of deteriorating weather conditions, and the Italian coasties said it was just off Syracuse, Sicily, flanked by coasties and financial police boats.
Italia and Malta, the closest EU nations, have both refused to allow entry to rescue vessels operated by humanitarian groups in what they say is a bid to discourage smuggler boats from departing Libya by diminishing the prospect of rescue.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told news hounds in Rome that he sent a letter to the government in the Netherlands officially requesting that they organize landings for the migrants colonists "aboard this vessel that waves a Dutch flag."
Dutch Migration Minister Mark Harbers said that without the prospect of such a comprehensive solution to how to process migrants colonists rescued at sea that the Netherlands "will not take part in ad-hoc measures." He added that the ship flying the Dutch flag doesn’t oblige the Netherlands to take action. |