The first ship in the an aid convoy led by the Aquarius yesterday docked at the Spanish port of Valencia, ending a week-long ordeal for hundreds of people who were rescued from the Mediterranean only to become the latest pawn in Europe’s battle over immigration.
Medical staff boarded the Italian coast guard vessel Dattilo after it arrived just before 7am and the 270 migrants on board soon began to disembark. The rescue ship Aquarius and another Italian navy ship, the Orione, were to arrive later in the day, discharging about 630 migrants.
The Aquarius, operated by aid groups SOS Mediterranee Sea and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), was Saturday stuck off the coast of Sicily last when Italy refused it permission to dock and demanded that Malta do so. Malta also refused.
Photo: AFP
After days of bickering, with food and water running low on the rescue ship, Spain stepped in and offered to grant the rescue boat entry about 1,500km away. The journey across the Mediterranean to Valencia took nearly a week.
MSF Spain president David Noguera said he was glad that Spain allowed these migrants in, but is worried that more European nations will start closing their ports to those rescued at sea.
“I have mixed feelings,” he told reporters yesterday as the first boat arrived. “I am happy that the journey [for the Aquarius migrants] is over — a journey that was too long — and I am worried for the situation in the Mediterranean and the closing of European ports.”
The migrants were met by emergency workers, health officials, Red Cross volunteers and psychologists at the city’s marina. Each were assigned to a translator and authorities worked to determine their identities before they were sent to welcome centers. The first migrant was a 29-year-old man from South Sudan.
Valencia emergency official Jorge Suarez said that some of the migrants were in a state of shock.
“They are very shaken,” Suarez said. “Put yourself in their position, you get off a ship and the first people who greet you are wearing masks.”
Spanish authorities have said that they would examine the migrants case by case to see who might qualify for asylum.
However, due to their ordeal, the migrants from the Aquarius will be granted a “special authorization” to remain in the country for one month before “they will be dealt with according to our laws, without exception,” Spanish Minister of Public Works Jose Luis Abalos said.
“Spain will act with sensitivity and at the same time within the law, and with a message to Europe that it doesn’t have an immigration policy up to the challenge at hand,” he added.
Spain also accepted the French government’s offer to take in those migrants who want to go to France “once they have fulfilled the protocols.”
The boatload of migrants that was forced to spend days crossing the western Mediterranean includes 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 children and as many as seven pregnant women. After Spain invited the Aquarius to dock, Italy sent the Dattilo and Orione to help transport the migrants.
The refusal by Italy and Malta to allow the Aquarius to enter their ports has reignited an EU-wide battle over how to handle immigration.
Spain’s new Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party minority government has taken up the cause of the migrants’ plight to demonstrate its commitment to protecting human rights and respecting international law.
Spain’s maritime rescue service pulled 986 people from 69 small boats near the Strait of Gibraltar between Friday and Saturday, and also recovered four bodies.
At least 792 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the UN.
In the first five months of the year, about 35,455 migrants reached European shores, with 11,792 of them arriving in Spain.
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