Another battle of words is brewing between Malta and Italy on yet another group of migrants that has been rescued by a ship belonging to a non-governmental organisation.
Italian Home Minister Matteo Salvini, on Twitter, wrote that Italy will not be accepting the ship with the migrants which, according to him, is closer to Malta.
The ship Open Arms, he wrote, which carried a Spanish flag and belongs to a Spanish NGO, rushed to save 50 migrants without waiting for the intervention of the Libyan coast guard.
He says that this ship is in the Libyan search and rescue area with Malta as its closest port. "They should not even think of coming to Italy," he said, adding that this "human trafficking mafia" has to stop.
"The fewer (number of people) leave (land), the fewer die," he said.
Questa nave @openarms_fund si trova in acque Sar della Libia, porto più vicino Malta, Ong e bandiera della Spagna: si scordino di arrivare in un porto italiano.
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) June 30, 2018
Stop alla mafia del traffico di esseri umani: meno persone partono, meno persone muoiono.#chiudiamoiporti pic.twitter.com/mFrbEXNTHq
Malta is still to react officially, but on Thursday the government announced that it had closed Malta's ports to all NGO ships pending an investigation on the MV Lifeline, the migrant ship that brought in 234 migrants following a one-off accord Prime Minister Joseph Muscat brokered with eight other nations.
Malta and Italy had also been involved in a diplomatic spat earlier this month after another NGO vessel, the MV Aquarius, rescued 900 migrants who were later taken to Spain.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2tFNUSm
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