A “relief tinged with bitterness”, according to the NGO SOS Méditerranée. The European NGO’s “Ocean Viking” ship, which has been wandering for 20 days at sea in search of a safe port for the 234 migrants it rescued on board, will be welcomed Friday, November 11 in Toulon and “a third “Migrant passengers will be “relocated” to France, if they are regularized, announced Thursday Gérald Darmanin, after the Council of Ministers. The subject of a showdown between France and Italy for several days, the ship is currently off Corsica with 231 migrants on board. The point on the diplomatic bickering between Paris and Rome in three acts.
- Act 1: France does not “doubt” that Italy will host the “Ocean Viking”
Gérald Darmanin does not “doubt” that Italy will “respect international law” and welcome the “Ocean Viking”. This is what the Minister of the Interior declared on November 4 on RMC / BFMTV. “International law is very clear: when a boat asks to dock with shipwrecked people on board, it is the nearest safest port that must accommodate it, in this case Italy”, declares this day- there Gerald Darmanin. The French Minister of the Interior then specifies that he “had an exchange” with his Italian counterpart.
“But we have told our Italian friends, together with our German friends, that we are obviously ready to take part of the women and children, as we have done previously, so that Italy does not carry it alone” the burden of this arrival”, explains Gérald Darmanin.
SOS Méditerranée had called on France, Spain and Greece the day before to help it quickly find a safe port to disembark the 234 migrants on board since October 26. The NGO had also approached Italy, but it doubted getting a green light because of the recent coming to power of a right-wing coalition in Rome and the anti-migrant statements of its leaders. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has announced that he has issued a directive warning police forces and port authorities that his ministry is considering a ban on the entry of the “Ocean Viking” into its territorial waters.
- Act 2: Paris denounces the “unacceptable behavior” of Rome
The change in tone between Paris and Rome is noticeable four days later. On November 8, the French government denounced the “unacceptable behavior” of the Italian authorities who refused to allow the ship “Ocean Viking” to dock off the coast of Sicily. The attitude of the Italian authorities is “contrary to the law of the sea and the spirit of European solidarity”, declared a French government source interviewed by AFP.
Earlier in the evening, the new far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had thanked France, which according to her had agreed to welcome the “Ocean Viking” in one of its ports. “We want to say how much we appreciate France’s decision to take its share of responsibility in the face of the migratory emergency, which until now has rested on the shoulders of Italy and a few other Mediterranean countries, by opening its ports to the ship Ocean Viking,” Giorgia Meloni said in a statement.
During the day, the NGO SOS Méditerranée had asked France to assign a safe port for the disembarkation of the 234 migrants. “We are in a total impasse in the face of the deafening silence of Italy”, explained the director of SOS Méditerranée, Sophie Beau, when Rome had not acceded to any of its 43 requests for a safe port.
On November 9, the government, through its spokesperson Olivier Véran, asked Italy to “play its role” and “respect its European commitments”, by welcoming the ship. “The boat is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are extremely clear European rules and which have moreover been accepted by the Italians who are, in fact, the first beneficiary of a European financial solidarity mechanism”, recalls Olivier Veran.
For its part, the European Commission calls for the “immediate disembarkation at the nearest safe port” of the 234 migrants, considering that “the situation on board the ship has reached a critical level and must be resolved urgently to avoid a humanitarian tragedy”. .
- Act 3: Darmanin announces the reception of the ship and castigates Italy which “does not behave like a responsible European state”
New twist: the “Ocean Viking” will be welcomed by France on Friday at the port of Toulon and “a third” of migrant passengers will be “relocated” to France, announced Thursday Gérald Darmanin. The ship, which is currently off the coast of Corsica with 231 migrants on board, should arrive “late Friday morning” in Toulon, said the Minister of the Interior after the Council of Ministers.
“It is on an exceptional basis that we welcome this boat, given the fifteen days of waiting at sea that the Italian authorities have subjected the passengers to”, specifies the minister. He adds that passengers who do not meet the criteria for asylum seekers “will be deported directly”. Three migrants in a serious state of health and one of the surviving migrants accompanying them had to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in Bastia, Corsica, this Thursday morning after this long maritime wandering.
The Minister of the Interior denounces at the same time the “incomprehensible choice” of Italy not to welcome this boat. Italy has “taken the side of not behaving like a responsible European state”, he regrets. By way of protest, France has decided to suspend “with immediate effect” the reception planned for this summer of 3,500 refugees currently in Italy.
The Minister of the Interior recalls that a European mechanism allows relocation to other European countries of refugees who have arrived in particular in Italy within the framework of international law and the law of the sea. He calls on “all the other participants (at this mechanism), in particular Germany” to also suspend the planned reception of refugees currently in Italy. France will take measures to “strengthen border controls” with Italy, adds Gérald Darmanin. Paris “will also draw the consequences” of the Italian attitude on the other aspects of its “bilateral relationship”, adds the minister.
- Act 4: Rome denounces a “totally incomprehensible” French reaction
The Italian reaction is not long in coming. A few hours later, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi denounced as “totally incomprehensible” the French decision to take retaliatory measures against Rome. “France’s reaction to the request to welcome 234 migrants, when Italy only welcomed 90,000 this year, is totally incomprehensible,” he said in a statement.
A standoff had already opposed the Europeans to Italy four years ago, under the government of Matteo Salvini, on the reception of humanitarian boats collecting migrants. Paris and Rome were particularly hung around the fate of the “Aquarius” in June 2018, the former ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which had finally had to disembark in Valencia in Spain after recovering 630 migrants off the coast of Libya.