Italy allows rescue boat with 82 Migrants to Dock in Lampedusa

Italy has allowed rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants in the southern port of Lampedusa, the SOS Mediterranee charity which runs the vessel said Saturday.

“The Ocean Viking just received instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of Rome to proceed to Lampedusa,” SOS Mediterranee said in a tweet.

The Ocean Viking, which had appealed for days for a port of safety, is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, the Associated Press reported.

Fifty of those aboard were rescued on Sept. 8 from human traffickers’ flimsy rubber dinghy launched from Libya.

Thirty-four other migrants also were rescued the next day in the Mediterranean.

“An ad hoc European agreement between Italy, France, Germany, Portugal and Luxembourg has been reached to allow the landing,” said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, referring to the division of the migrants between the five countries.

“We now need to agree on a genuine temporary European mechanism,” Castaner added, according to AFP.

The Ocean Viking had rescued 356 migrants on a previous mission.

Italy is trying to set up an automatic system for distributing migrants rescued in the Mediterranean between European countries, diplomatic sources said recently.

The decision follows an agreement with the European commission, which received a request on Wednesday night to coordinate the redistribution of migrants onboard the Ocean Viking among member states.

“Italian authorities have offered to the Ocean Viking a safe port to disembark,’’ the two charities tweeted. “MSF and SOS Méditerranée are relieved”.”

Italy’s new government, which won a vote of confidence in the senate on Tuesday – the final step needed to exercise its full powers – intends to draw a line under a crisis sparked by Salvini, the far-right leader of the League.

Giuseppe Conte, on his second mandate as prime minister, had promised to revise the previous government’s anti-immigration policies, which provide for the closure of seaports to rescue vessels carrying migrants, the seizure of NGO boats and fines for ships that bring asylum seekers to Italy without permission.

NGO rescue vessels have been stranded at sea up to 20 days over the last 14 months because of the Salvini’s measures. There have been 25 standoffs between rescue vessels and Italian authorities since Salvini took office as interior minister in June 2018, according to the Institute for International Political Studies (Ispi).

Given the medical and psychological condition of their passengers, the ships have often broken the blockade and allowed them to disembark without permission.

In almost all cases, this resulted in the temporary seizure of the ship and heavy fines. Carola Rackete, the captain of Sea-Watch 3, was arrested in June after forcing her way into Lampedusa with 40 migrants on board. She risked ramming a navy vessel that tried to obstruct her entrance into the port. She was eventually released.

Germany and France are prepared to take in 25% each of the migrants onboard the Ocean Viking. Other EU states including Italy will take the remainder.

Following a meeting with the European council president, Donald Tusk, in Brussels on Wednesday, Conte said EU member states that refused to share the burden of the arrival of migrants should face financial penalties.

“Those who do not participate in the redistribution of migrants at the European level will feel the impact in a significant way in financial terms,” he said.

“The new government has opened again its seaports to migrants,” Salvini said on Twitter. “The new ministers must hate our country. Italy is back to being Europe’s refugee camp.”