Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini on Saturday buckled under pressure and agreed to let 27 unaccompanied minors leave a migrant rescue ship after two weeks at sea, temporarily easing a political standoff that has threatened the viability of the populist government.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had written to Salvini demanding that minors be allowed off the boat.
After initially refusing, Salvini wrote back on Saturday with a three-page missive of his own saying he would do so, but made clear it was Conte’s choice and that it did not set a precedent.
Photo: AFP
Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms said the decision concerned 27 unaccompanied minors who were picked up off Libya earlier this month along with more than 100 other migrants.
The minors were transferred to an Italian border patrol boat for disembarkation and processing on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The fate of the other migrants still aboard the Open Arms off the island remained uncertain.
The standoff laid bare the split between Salvini’s anti-migrant League and the 5-Star Movement, which together govern Italy.
Salvini is seeking to end Conte’s populist coalition with a no-confidence vote and early election that he hopes will give him the prime ministry.
Open Arms had won a legal battle to enter Italy’s territorial waters, and Conte had secured offers from Spain and five other EU nations to take the migrants in.
However, the ship remained off the coast because of Salvini’s policy prohibiting humanitarian aid groups from docking.
Proactiva Open Arms founder and president Oscar Camps said that tensions were rising on the vessel and fights breaking out that threatened the safety of all on board.
He told European leaders that “we cannot be responsible nor guarantee the security of the people on board Open Arms.”
Amid the standoff, the aid group filed a formal complaint with prosecutors in Sicily alleging that the migrants and the crew were being held hostage.
Salvini and other ministers have been investigated in the past for alleged kidnapping stemming from previous standoffs, but no charges have ever been brought.
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