Six European Union countries have agreed to take in the 356 migrants stranded at...
BRUSSELS/MILAN - Six European Union countries have agreed to take in the 356 migrants stranded at sea for two weeks aboard the Ocean Viking rescue vessel, ending the latest standoff in the bloc over migration across the Mediterranean.
“Welcome that a solution for the persons aboard Ocean Viking has been found and that all will be relocated,” EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said. With the EU’s eastern, ex-communist states refusing to host any of the new arrivals, the bloc has increasingly turned to tightening its borders and asylum laws, turning people away or paying countries like Turkey to stop them reaching Europe.
On Tuesday, around a hundred migrants stranded for weeks on board another rescue ship, the Open Arms, disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa - but only after Spain, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal agreed to take them in. “European governments need to bring to a definitive end prolonged standoffs and petty case-by-case negotiations to come up immediately with a predetermined disembarking mechanism, MSF said.
The ship, which had been stranded in international waters between Malta and the southern Italian island of Linosa, had been denied entry by Malta while requests to Italy had gone unanswered, the charities previously said.
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