An Italian coast guard vessel carrying some 130 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean has finally been allowed to dock in Sicily, but its passengers will not be allowed to leave the ship until Brussels decides on which countries will take them in, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Sunday.
The EU had to give a clear response “because the migration issue concerns the whole continent,” Toninelli said in a statement.
His words echo those of hard-line anti-immigration Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who had previously not allowed the ship to dock, while insisting on Friday that other EU countries had to commit to take in the migrants before they would be allowed to disembark on Italian territory.
The ship, the Gregoretti, was given permission to dock in the Sicilian city of Augusta overnight to Sunday after six migrants were taken for medical treatment to the island of Lampedusa and a pregnant woman and her family were allowed to leave the vessel on July 27.
Source: DW
