Ocean Viking set to return to Libya

ROME: Charity rescue vessel Ocean Viking was on Sunday preparing to return to rescuing shipwreck survivors off Libya after disembarking 82 migrants in Italy following a reversal of government policy in Rome.

Italian authorities identified and carried out medical checks on the sub-Saharan African migrants after they disembarked overnight on southern island Lampedusa after more than six days at sea.

Under an ad hoc European deal, Italy, France and Germany will take 24 migrants each. Portugal will take eight and Luxembourg two, Italian media reported. “After disembarkation, the Ocean Viking should head back to her search and rescue mission in the Central Mediterranean, because people continue to die in these waters where no rescue ship is currently present in the area,” Nicola Stalla, the vessel’s search and rescue coordinator, said on Saturday.

European leaders are trying to thrash out an automatic mechanism that would see rescued migrants who are brought to Italy or Malta swiftly redistributed around Europe. It is not yet clear how many countries will sign up to the scheme.

Italy’s new government, sworn in last week, is forging its own migrant policy after 14 months of former interior minister Matteo Salvini’s hardline stance against charity vessels and migrants.

The far-right leader, now in opposition, hit out at a rally in northern Italy at the German captain of another charity rescue vessel, the Sea Watch 3. Salvini lashed out at Carola Rackete as “a pampered communist” and “someone who nearly killed five soldiers while on duty”.

Rackete, 31, was arrested in June 2019 and held for several days after the Sea-Watch 3 hit an Italian police speedboat while entering Lampedusa port despite a ban from entering Italy’s waters.

Her arrest was overturned by a court and she was released, but the ship was seized. Italy and Malta say that they bear disproportionate responsibility for migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing as they are the closest European Union states to Libya, from where they mainly depart. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to discuss the plan with France’s President Emmanuel Macron when the latter visits Rome on Wednesday.