The beginning of an Italo-French estrangement? Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi described Thursday as “totally incomprehensible” the French decision to retaliate against Italy which refused to open its ports to the Ocean Viking, a ship loaded with migrants.
After the Italian refusal to let the boat dock, Paris took the decision on Thursday to welcome it. The 230 migrants on board will disembark at the port of Toulon on Friday and “a third” of them will be “relocated” to France, the Interior Ministry announced. Paris, at the same time, criticized the “incomprehensible choice” of Italy not to accept the humanitarian ship and, by way of protest, decided to suspend “with immediate effect” the reception planned for this summer of 3,500 refugees currently in Italy.
“It is on an exceptional basis that we welcome this boat, given the fifteen days of waiting at sea that the Italian authorities have subjected the passengers to,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said earlier on Thursday. . France “will also draw the consequences” of the Italian attitude on the other aspects of its “bilateral relationship”, the French minister further announced.
Italy “alone in the face of this problem”
“France’s reaction to the request to welcome 234 migrants, when Italy only welcomed 90,000 this year, is totally incomprehensible”, reacted the minister in a press release. “What we don’t understand is why Italy should willingly accept what others are unwilling to accept,” retorted his transalpine counterpart in his statement.
“This year, almost 90,000 people landed in Italy. Thirteen European countries have pledged to take back a total of 8,000 people, less than a tenth. So far, a total of 117 people have been taken care of (0.13% of arrivals), including 38 by France (0.04%), said the Italian minister.
He denounced the desire “to impose the principle that Italy is the only possible European arrival for illegal immigrants” and the fact that despite the affirmations of European solidarity, the peninsula “has up to now faced alone this issue “. “Countries of arrival cannot bear sole responsibility for managing flows” of migrants, concluded the Italian minister.