France calls Italy's attitude to migrant rescue ship 'unacceptable'

Stand-off over charity vessel echoes disputes four years ago between Italy and other EU nations

Humanitarian aid boat 'Ocean Viking' enters the harbour on the island of Sicily in July 2020. AFP

France told Italy on Wednesday that its refusal to let a charity ship carrying 234 rescued migrants dock was "unacceptable."

Italy is becoming increasingly frustrated at taking in the majority of migrants rescued trying to reach Europe from North Africa, and the row with France is its latest stand-off with other European nations.

It centres on the Ocean Viking, a charity ship that has sailed away from Sicilian waters toward France after unsuccessfully waiting for permission to dock in Italy since late October.

Run by the European charity SOS Mediterranee under a Norwegian flag, the ship has appealed to France to accept it as it sailed towards Corsica and possibly the French mainland, where it has also asked for access.

"It's a total blockage on the part of the Italians," SOS Mediterranee director Sophie Beau told AFP.

Ms Beau said the charity had lodged 43 official requests with no response.

As of Wednesday morning it "still had no official response" from French authorities, she said.

Italian leaders have claimed that France is ready to accept the migrants, but Paris has warned that the ship was in Italian waters and called the refusal to let her dock "unacceptable".

Migrant children rescued in French waters - in pictures

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  Migrants are rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc' ship after their boat's generator broke down in French waters as they were trying to cross the Channel illegally to Britain. All photos: AFP

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  Migrants wait for help in the Channel.

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  A child is rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc'.

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  The 'Abeille Languedoc' is an ocean-going tug specialising in the rescue of vessels in distress.

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  Migrant children on the rescue boat.

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  The 'Abeille Languedoc' has been moored in Cherbourg for 26 years, monitoring the Channel between the Cotentin and the Pas-de-Calais.

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  Migrants sit on board the 'Abeille Languedoc' after being rescued.

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  A rescuer carries a child as they disembark from the 'Abeille Languedoc'.

In Brussels, the European Commission urged the "immediate disembarkation, at the nearest place of safety, of all persons rescued and who are on board the Ocean Viking."

It did not single out Italy or France by name, but noted the "clear and unequivocal" legal obligation to rescue distressed persons at sea.

"The situation onboard the vessel has reached a critical level and needs to be urgently addressed to avoid a humanitarian tragedy," the Commission said.

The stand-off echoes disputes four years ago between Italy and other EU nations, when French President Emmanuel Macron in particular clashed with Italy's populist, anti-immigrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

German teams rescue migrants off Libya coast – in pictures

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  Migrants aboard a rubber boat end up in the water before being rescued by 'Sea Watch-3' crew members, approximately 35 miles from Libya. All photos: AP

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  Migrants hold on to the rubber vessel and wait to be rescued.

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  'Sea-Watch 3' is used for rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

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  A migrant is rescued from the water.

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  Migrants hold onto a centifloat.

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  Migrants wait to board the rescue boat.

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  Help is on the way: the migrants spot the 'Sea Watch-3' rescue boat.

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  Migrants scramble to get to safety.

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  A woman smiles with relief as she sees the rescue team approaching.

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  The 'Sea Watch-3' approaches the migrants.

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  A migrant rests with others on the deck of the 'Sea Watch-3'.

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  Eike Bretschneider disembarks the 'Seabird' after flying over the Mediterranean Sea, north of Libya. The aircraft documents any breach of human rights against migrants at sea and relays distress cases to nearby ships and authorities.

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  French volunteer pilot Augustin Clot, left, and tactical co-ordinator Jakob Fruehmann of Austria sit in the cockpit of 'Seabird', owned and operated by the German NGO Sea-Watch.

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  Migrants who were intercepted crossing the Mediterranean by boat line up behind a fence in Lampedusa, Italy, as they wait to board a ferry to Sicily.

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  Migrants are crammed in an overcrowded wooden boat, as seen from ‘Seabird’. Despite the risks, many migrants say they would rather die trying to reach Europe than return to Libya.

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  Migrants sit on the deck of the Italian supply vessel ‘Asso Ventinove’ after they were rescued from an unseaworthy boat drifting in the Mediterranean near the Bouri oilfields, north of Libya.

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  German volunteers Leona Blankenstein, left, and David Lohmueller aboard 'Seabird', looking for migrant boats in distress.

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  A small migrant boat and a Libyan merchant vessel are visible through the window of the humanitarian aircraft, above the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy.

The arrival of Giorgia Meloni at the head of Italy's most right-wing government in decades could again lead to strained ties that complicate decision-making at EU level.

"We're seeing diplomatic arm-wrestling between France and Italy that could open a breach for similar conflicts, because Italy is clearly challenging a European accord [on migrants] that was in its favour," said Matthieu Tardis of the French Institute for International Relations.

Ms Meloni on Wednesday defended the decision to allow only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from three other NGO rescue ships in recent days.

She said they were "not shipwrecked but migrants", according to reports of comments in a closed-door meeting.

Italian health authorities later ordered the remaining migrants to be let off the boat as well, a choice "we found bizarre", Ms Meloni said, according to Ansa.

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani claimed that France had offered Marseille as a port of safety for the Ocean Viking. Paris has not confirmed this.

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged a rapid disembarkment and warned that "politics should not be pursued at the expense of people in distress".

"The migrants need our unconditional support — humanity demands it," Mr Turk said.

Under international law, ships in distress or carrying rescued passengers must be allow entry in the nearest port of call, which means Italy and often Malta are shouldering the burden of taking in those rescued after trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya.

Dramatic clifftop rescue after migrants’ boat sinks in Greek waters - video

In June, about a dozen EU countries, including France, agreed to take in migrants who arrived in Italy and other main entry points.

Mr Tajani said Rome's reluctance to offer its ports is a signal to EU nations that they must play an even bigger part.

Rome wants "an agreement to establish, on the basis of population, how migrants with a right to asylum are relocated to various countries", he said, before a meeting of EU ministers next week.

So far this year, 164 asylum seekers have been moved from Italy to other nations in the bloc that have volunteered to accept them.

But that is a tiny fraction of the more than 88,000 that have reached its shores so far this year, of which just 14 per cent arrived after being rescued by NGO vessels, the Italian authorities say.

According to the UN's International Organisation for Migration, 1,891 migrants have died or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean so far this year.