Italy would not let Italian coastguard dock until EU countries agree to take them – Salvini
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Matteo Salvini said on Friday he would not let an Italian coastguard boat carrying 135 migrants dock until European Union countries agreed to take them in.
The Gregoretti coastguard vessel rescued the migrants on Thursday from two boats off Malta, but was awaiting orders on where it could take them.
The migrants were spotted aboard two makeshift boats, one by Tunisian fishermen and the other by Italians, on Wednesday, the day before at least 115 other migrants are believed to have drowned in a shipwreck off Libya.
The Italian coastguard sent a small boat to rescue those spotted by the Tunisians and took them to a larger coastguard vessel.
The Italian fishing boat stayed with the other vessel carrying around 50 migrants for 24 hours, 50 nautical miles from Malta and in its search and rescue area.
“We gave them water and crackers… we stayed in permanent contact with the (Italian) coastguard, but Malta never answered,” the fishing boat’s captain, Carlo Giarratano, told journalists after arriving in western Sicily’s Sciacca.
“I will not give any permission for them to disembark until Europe commits to accept all the immigrants on board,” Salvini, who is head of the far-right League party, said in a statement.
Rome has asked Brussels to coordinate migrant redistribution between member states, a European Commission spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that the EU executive would act to this effect.
