Italy gave permission to 116 rescued migrants to disembark from a coastguard ship, on 31 of July, as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s took a step back, after five EU countries and the Church agreed to share the responsibility of looking after the migrants.
As Salvini said:
I will give authorisation [for the migrants] to disembark in the coming hours
Indeed a few hours later, the 116 migrants who were on board the boat docked in Sicily for five days, were allowed to disembark.
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In addition, Italian prosecutors opened an investigation regarding the conditions the migrants were facing on board the the coastguard supply vessel, Bruno Gregoretti, as there are reports that they had only one toilet between them.
Moreover, an EU Commission spokeswoman spoke to AFP, stating that France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, along with the Italian Roman Catholic Church, would share the responsibility of looking after the migrants.
However, the Commission did not explain how the migrants will be shared among the countries.
This development comes shortly after, Carola Rackete, the Captain of Sea Watch 3, was freed from house arrest after a judge dismissed accusations that she had endangered the lives of Italian servicemen by choosing to ignore military orders and bringing a boat of migrants to the port of Lampedusa.
The German captain apologised for hitting a patrol boat, supporting that it was an accident and explaining that her only concern was the well-being of the migrants who had been at sea for more than two weeks.
In addition, overcoming Italy’s ban, another migrant rescue boat, the ‘Alex’, operated by the Italian NGO Mediterranea, docked at the same quay as the Sea Watch 3, having onboard 41 migrants. Mediterranea declined the Maltese offer to dock in Valletta commenting that the people onboard were not in the position to sustain such a long journey.
