France accepts migrant ship as row with Italy blazes

Toulon, France: A rescue ship carrying 230 migrants docked at the French port of Toulon on Friday amid a blazing row between France and Italy over which country is responsible for them.

The Ocean Viking, operated by a French NGO, had picked up the migrants at sea near the Libyan coast before spending weeks seeking a port to accept them.

France had never before allowed a rescue vessel carrying migrants from the Mediterranean to land on its coast, but did so this time because Italy had refused access. The rescue came a day after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that the migrants were Italy’s responsibility under EU rules, and that the French move was an “exceptional” measure.

He said Italy´s refusal to accept the migrants was “incomprehensible” and that there would be “severe consequences” for relations with Italy which he said had “lacked humanity”. On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned what she called an “aggressive reaction” by the French government, telling reporters that it was “incomprehensible and unjustified”.

The Ocean Viking ship had initially sought access to Italy’s coast, which is closest to where the migrants were picked up, saying health and sanitary conditions onboard were rapidly worsening. Italy refused, saying other nations needed to shoulder more of the burden for taking in the thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa every year.

“Everybody is very, very tired, but also relieved to set foot on land, it’s the end of an ordeal,” Laurence Bondard, a member of SOS Mediterranee, the NGO operating the Operation Viking, told AFP.