Paris announces retaliatory measures against Italy, Rome denounces an “aggressive” reaction
The humanitarian ship Ocean Vikings landed on Friday, November 11, in Toulon with 230 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean on board. It was the first landing in France of an ambulance ship rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, all against a backdrop of heightened tensions between Paris and Rome.
Thursday, while announcing the reception “extraordinary” IOcean VikingsGérald Darmanin criticized the “incomprehensible choice” and contrary to “international law” of Italy, led by a new far-right government, refused to open its ports to shipping. The Interior Minister also announced the suspension “immediate effect” of the expected reception of 3,500 migrants currently in Italy.
The president of the Italian council, Giorgia Meloni, responded on Friday, denouncing a French reaction “aggressive, incomprehensible and unreasonable”. However, he made sure he wanted to find out “a European solution” on the issue of migration. “It is not wise to argue with France, Spain, Greece, Malta or any other country. I want to find a common solution”he pointed out.
Migrants are placed in the “waiting zone”
L’Ocean Vikings arrived at the military port around 8:45 am to bring down the migrants, including fifty-seven children, to be immediately placed in a “waiting area”, said Mr. Darmanin. These people will be transferred to a holiday center on the Giens peninsula in Hyères, a town about twenty kilometers east of Toulon, said “international waiting area” for twenty days.
they “cannot leave the administrative center where we place them and are therefore not technically on French land”said the minister.
All these people will undergo health monitoring, then security checks by the intelligence services, before being heard by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees (Ofpra), which grants refugee status. Ofpra will be able to conduct up to 90 interviews per day from Saturday. Two-thirds of the people will leave France, as they will be moved to nine countries, Mr. Darmanin said, citing Germany, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Ireland.
Almost 2,000 are lost at sea
SOS Méditerranée says it has experienced “comfort with a hint of bitterness”. “The survivors lived through a real ordeal”, NGO director Sophie Beau told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Four of the 234 migrants on the humanitarian ship had to be evacuated from Corsica on Thursday, three of them for medical reasons.
He is “European States urgently set up a permanent distribution mechanism”M pleaded againI Good, while Italy is multiplying declarations against migrants. “Europe must increase the pressure on the Italian government to force it to honor its commitments”estimated for his part Delphine Rouilleault, who heads the organization of France Terre d’Asile.
Since June, an asylum-seeker relocation system has provided that a dozen European Union (EU) member states, including France and Germany, have voluntarily accepted 8,000 migrants arriving in Mediterranean states. (Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Malta) . However, only about 100 migrants were relocated under this mechanism. An insufficient number, Italian judge.
Since the beginning of the year, 1,891 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Reinforced Franco-Italian border controls were put in place “more than a dozen” crossings, including mountains, French police also said on Friday. Almost 500 additional police and gendarmes will be mobilized to guarantee “a security [vingt-quatre heures sur vingt-quatre] »said the policeman.
