EU seeks volunteer countries to take in migrants stranded at Italian port
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Italy is engaged in another standoff with the European Union over migrants in the Mediterranean, refusing to allow 115 Africans to disembark in Sicily.
They are on board the Bruno Gregoretti, an Italian coastguard vessel that took them last Thursday after they had been saved off Malta. The European Commission says efforts are underway to find other EU countries who can take them in.
The migrants had been in two groups in rubber dinghies that had got into trouble after leaving Libya, when they were rescued by fishing boats. The rescue came on the same day that more than 100 migrants are thought to have perished off the Libyan coast.
The coastguard ship was given permission to dock in Augusta at the weekend, and the Italian interior ministry says 16 unaccompanied teenagers aged 15-17 have since been allowed off. Earlier a pregnant woman and her family could disembark in Catania after six migrants were reportedly taken to the island of Lampedusa for medical treatment.
The European Commission says it has contacted member states to seek to distribute them elsewhere in the EU. A spokesman said on Monday the Commission would help countries willing to step in, and “contacts are ongoing”.
The onus was on individual states to come forward, the spokesman added, promising an update “once the process is completed”.
