Six European countries have so far offered to take in 147 migrants who were plucked out of the central Mediterranean by a non-profit rescue group two weeks ago, but whose ship has yet to be offered port entry by any EU member state.
The Open Arms, which is operated by a Spanish aid organization, is expected to be granted authorization to dock in Italy in the coming hours, according to statements made on Thursday by the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte.
The move comes after 14 days during which conditions on board the ship have deteriorated, and only after the European Commission contacted several countries informally in a bid to find a negotiated solution to the latest migrant crisis to affect the EU.
Spain will be part of this group of six countries, as well as Portugal, France, Germany, Romania and Luxembourg. Government sources said that EU officials are in talks with more member states to see whether they are willing to take in some of the migrants.
While Italy’s role is still unclear, it will at least allow the ship to dock at the port of Lampedusa and provide early assistance to the migrants. In a harsh open letter to his own interior minister Matteo Salvini posted on Facebook, PM Conte chided the latter for his closed-ports position and noted that “once again, our European colleagues have reached out to us.”
Spain changes tack
Until now, the Spanish government had resisted taking in any of these migrants on the basis that Spain is already under migratory pressure from Morocco, a departure point for many people trying to reach Europe.
But the deteriorating conditions on board the ship, and the fact that it is operated by a Spanish non-profit group, Proactiva Open Arms, have weighed on the decision to take in some of the 147 individuals who remain on the ship. Around 16 have already been evacuated to Italy for medical reasons. The migrants were rescued at sea after attempting the dangerous crossing from Libya.
The executive of acting Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, of the Socialist Party (PSOE), has agreed to participate in a migrant distribution scheme that is being informally coordinated by the European Commission.
Although the Sánchez administration originally adopted an open-port attitude, unilaterally taking in hundreds of rescued migrants who had been rejected by Italy, this policy has changed in the last year. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has complained repeatedly in Brussels that migrants arriving through the central Mediterranean route cannot not be distributed across the EU while Spain is expected to unilaterally deal with all the arrivals through the western route.
The government’s newest position has been influenced by worsening conditions aboard the Open Arms and by domestic pressure – there has been a deluge of offers of help by Spanish regional and municipal authorities, and petitions asking Sánchez for a solution.
One of the last times that Spain found itself in a similar situation was in December 2018, when a dozen migrants were rescued by a Spanish fishing vessel called Nuestra Madre Loreto. Spanish authorities first instructed the captain to take the migrants back to Libya, but the ship finally docked in Malta under a pledge that Spain would take them in.
Just a few days after that, the Open Arms sailed into the Spanish port of Algeciras with 300 rescued migrants, and there was no distribution among EU countries. Since then, Madrid had refused to take charge of any more migrants rescued on the “Italian” route.
English version by Susana Urra.