XPost: soc.culture.italian, alt.politics.immigration, alt.politics.obama
XPost: sac.politics

Good for them! Thank Barack Obama for creating the immigration
mess.

A rescue ship carrying more than 600 migrants will be allowed to
enter the Spanish port of Valencia, after it was turned away
from ports in Italy and Malta.

The ship Aquarius rescued 629 people in the Mediterranean Sea on
Saturday, "including 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children
and seven pregnant women," Reuters reports.

The ship was left stranded at sea over the weekend after it was
denied access to the Italian and Maltese ports.

Italy, which has a new, anti-immigration government, suggested
that Malta take in the migrants. Malta objected, saying that it
had been Italian authorities who coordinated the rescue to begin
with, The Associated Press writes.

Aid workers aboard said that food would run out by the end of
the day on Monday, The Associated Press reports, and they
reported injuries ranging from burns to hypothermia.

The U.N. refugee agency said Monday that there was "an urgent
humanitarian imperative" to act, calling on governments to
accept the distressed migrants now and resolve "broader issues"
later.

Spain answered the call, opening the port of Valencia to the
vessel, Lucia Benavides reports for NPR from Barcelona. But AP
notes that "it wasn't immediately clear if such a voyage was
feasible given the distances involved — the ship is now more
than 1,400 kilometers (over 750 nautical miles) from Valencia."

The number of migrants arriving in Spain has been on the rise,
Benavides reports, while the number of sea arrivals in Italy
"has dropped 77 percent compared to this time last year,
following controversial deals with the Libyan Coast Guard and
investigations into NGO search-and-rescues."

Italy's government is led by two populist parties tied together,
in part, by hostility toward migrants and a desire for a tougher
stance on immigration.

A little more than a week ago, Italy's new interior minister,
Matteo Salvini, told a crowd that "Italy and Sicily cannot be
Europe's refugee camp" and "the good times for illegals are
over," Deutsche Welle reports.

Closing Italy's ports to Aquarius represented the first test of
the populist government's rhetoric, and Italy stood firm,
despite outcry from the European Union and the U.N.

The BBC writes that the treatment of rescue ships is governed by
international law:

"The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
dictates that any ship learning of distress at sea must assist
regardless of the circumstances.

"It says that the country responsible for operations in that
area has primary responsibility for taking them from the ship.

"It also clearly states that the relevant government "shall
arrange for such disembarkation to be effected as soon as
reasonably practicable".

"Given that the migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya,
the closest ports are likely to be either Sicily in Italy or
Malta."

Italy has long protested that sending migrants to the nearest
port has distributed Europe's burden unequally, hitting Italy
particularly hard. It's an argument that human rights advocates
also have supported.

Italy's new prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, pointed to Malta's
refusal to help as evidence of "Malta's and Europe's
unwillingness to intervene in an emergency," NPR's Sylvia
Poggioli reports from Rome:

"Matteo Salvini, interior minister and leader of the anti-
immigrant party the league, posted [on Twitter] under the
hashtag 'ports closed' 'Italy too says no to human trafficking.'

"It's the only way, he said, to make ourselves heard in Brussels.

"Many commentators attribute the populists election success to
the European Union's failure to assist Italy in handling the
migrant crisis."

Spain, which announced Monday that it would accept the ship, is
also led by a brand-new government, after a no-confidence vote
in the former prime minister put the Socialists in power on June
1.

The new prime minister said Spain was welcoming the Aquarius out
of the "duty to avoid a humanitarian disaster," the AP reports.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618849580/italy-and-malta-close- their-ports-to-migrant-rescue-ship-spain-takes-it-in

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