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Europe
Aid ship with 311 migrants ignored by Italy, heads to Spain
2018-12-23
[APNEWS] Spain’s Foreign Ministry gave permission Saturday to an aid boat carrying 311 rescued migrants colonists to set course for Spain after Italia and other Mediterranean countries did not answer its request to dock.

The boat belonging to the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms saved 313 migrants colonists Friday in waters near Libya. A baby and its mother were then evacuated from the boat.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Malta denied the aid boat permission to dock and the boat’s calls to Italia, La Belle France, Tunisia and Libya have gone unanswered.

The aid group said it now has permission to enter the Spanish port of Algeciras. On its Twitter account, Proactiva said "it will be many and difficult days sailing, but we have a safe port."

Italy rejects appeal for 300 migrants to dock

[DW] Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insists Italian ports "are closed" after the latest docking request by a Spanish migrant rescue ship. The populist Rome government has taken a hard-line approach to the refugee influx.

Although the number of migrants colonists crossing from Libya to Italia has fallen sharply since its peak last year, this part of the Mediterranean has been the deadliest for those attempting to make it to Europe. More than 1,300 migrants colonists have perished trying to reach Italia or Malta since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Despite obstruction by some European countries, several charities, including Germany's Sea-Eye are still operating in the Mediterranean. One of Sea-Eye's rescue ships set off from the southern Spanish port of Algeciras earlier this week, as the narrow stretch of water between Morocco and Spain has increasingly become the preferred route for migrant crossings.
Posted by:Fred

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