ROME—Italy’s new populist government has denied permission to dock to an aid-group boat ferrying hundreds of migrants rescued off the coast of Libya, following through on a campaign pledge to halt mass migration to Italy and leaving the vessel stranded.
The Italian government has urged Malta to take the 629 migrants, rescued this weekend and now aboard a boat managed by the SOS Mediterranee aid group. However, the small nation declined, arguing that it has no obligation to receive the migrants.
As a result, the boat, which, according to the aid group, carries 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children and seven pregnant women, was still drifting in the Mediterranean, waiting for instructions on where to allow the migrants to disembark.
Italy’s decision represents the first action by the new government to affirm a new course in its migration policy, which aims to stem the flow of undocumented African and Middle Eastern migrants.
The government supported by the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement and the hard-right League has pledged to halt what they describe as “the business of migration” and deport half a million migrants now on Italian soil. The coalition also promised to push Italy’s European partners to take in rescued migrants.
“Saving lives is a duty. Transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp no way,” wrote Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Interior Minister and leader of the League, on Facebook . “Italy has stopped bowing its head and obeying.”
Italy has seen 750,000 seaborne migrants arrive on it shores since 2011, a crisis that has generated anger among Italians, some of whom accuse Rome’s European partners of abandoning it.
It is unclear whose duty it is to take the migrants. According to rules in place from 2013 to February of this year, all migrants rescued in the Mediterranean were brought to Italy.
But the European Union border agency Frontex has since launched a new rescue operation in central Mediterranean. Rules for that operation leave the decision to the country coordinating the rescues as to where migrants will be disembarked, a task that has typically fallen to Italy. Frontex said that the rescue was outside of the area regulated by the new regime.
“We are reviewing all rules to be able to manage critical situations like this one better,” said Italy’s Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli.
Italy said it has sent doctors both on Sunday and on Monday morning to assist the passengers.
In a statement late Sunday, the Maltese government—which has long taken a hard line against accepting migrants—said that it wouldn’t accept the vessel and was “acting in full conformity with its international obligations.”