The Local (Espana) Spain will treat the hundreds of migrants who are to arrive Sunday on board the Aquarius rescue vessel “totally normally”, the government said Friday, meaning some could be expelled. The ship’s plight has caused a rift across Europe this week, but Spain has agreed to take the 629 migrants after Italy and Malta refused the ship permission to dock. It is scheduled to arrive in Valencia on Sunday.
Spain can not rule out anything,” said government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa after a cabinet meeting. “Spain is acting totally normally, as Europe usually works,” she added in response to a journalist who asked if the government would rule out sending Aquarius passengers back to their countries of origin. Every migrant “will know if he has refugee status, if he is an economic migrant, and also, indeed, if he is guilty of certain offences that make him liable to expulsion,” added the spokeswoman for the government of socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power on 1 June.
