The French government announced on Thursday that NGO SOS Méditerranée’s Ocean Viking was due to dock at a military port in France on Friday “on an exceptional basis”, refusing to welcome it amid a flurry of tensions with Italy. Among European countries committed to welcoming migrants, Germany should welcome “more than 80,” the French minister noted during a televised interview. Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland will also welcome migrants in the name of “European unity,” Dormanin said.
read more: Ocean Viking will be held “exceptionally” in Toulon
Italian Refusal
Accepted refugees are “deserving of asylum,” the minister added, reiterating that “those who cannot receive asylum will be directly returned to their home countries.” The minister’s entourage told AFP that “contacts have been established with the relevant countries to continue the procedures” that would allow for the “deportation of those who do not meet the conditions for asylum”. Ocean Viking’s passengers are from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Malian, Sudan and Guinea.
Gerald Dormanin, who once again condemned Italy’s “inhumane” attitude in refusing to allow the Ocean Viking to dock, responded by asserting that “there are already 500 French police officers on the Italian border to better control our border”. .
read more: Italy’s Giorgia Meloni authorizes the landing of small or sick migrants
Since the beginning of the year, 1,765 migrants have gone missing in the Mediterranean, including 1,287 in the central Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous migrant route, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In this regard, finally read: Migration: Roads of All Hazards
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