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TEHRAN, Jul 23 - France and Germany widened the group of countries willing to accept asylum seekers arriving by boat across the Mediterranean, but made no move to accept demands by Italy’s Matteo Salvini that they accept migrant ships directly in their ports.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Salvini, in his capacity as Italian interior minister, said Monday’s meeting of European interior ministers was a “flop” that “basically said Italy must continue to be the refugee camp of Europe,” according to a statement.
France and Germany had organized the informal meeting in Paris to try to improve Europe’s ad-hoc system for dealing with humanitarian aid ships that collect migrants from rickety boats leaving North Africa and attempt to deliver them to Europe.
Salvini has largely shut Italian ports to humanitarian ships, meaning that each approach of a migrant-laden boat has set off negotiations across Europe that eventually result in the boat being allowed to dock in Malta and sometime Italy, but only once other countries, mostly France and Germany, have signed up to accept asylum seekers. Boats have spent weeks at sea while these agreements are hashed out.
French officials said Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal , Lithuania, Croatia and Ireland had committed to accepting asylum seekers.
And they pledged financial and technical assistance to facilitate the swift return of migrants not entitled to asylum protection, without providing details.
Source: Bloomberg
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