New Italian government allows migrants disembark from boat

Ocean Viking boat carrying 82 migrants allowed to berth in Lampedusa

Italy on Saturday agreed to allow rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants on southern islands Lampedusa after six days at sea following a European deal to distribute them.


“The Ocean Viking just received instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Rome to proceed to Lampedusa,” SOS Mediterranee tweeted.

“The Italian authorities have just offered #OceanViking a Place of Safety.Six days since the first rescue,
@MSF_Sea & @SOSMedIntl are relieved that the 82 rescued people onboard will soon disembark in Lampedusa”, also tweeted MSF Sea.

“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.

“They tell our medics their skin was burned with melted plastic and they were beaten with wooden or metal sticks,” MSF said of the migrants who departed from chaos-wracked Libya.

“Many carry psychological wounds or trauma,” MSF tweeted.

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

Such a deal would put an end to the case-by-case negotiations over who will take in those saved during the perilous crossing from North Africa, which has seen vulnerable asylum seekers trapped in limbo at sea for lengthy periods.

France and Germany have reportedly given their green light to the new system, which could also involve Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that under the possible future agreement, Germany would take 25 percent of rescued migrants landing in Italy.

“That won’t be too much for our immigration policy,” Seehofer told Saturday’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

He said it was time to end the “painful process” of haggling over each boatload of rescued migrants.