• Justice: The Prosecutor's Office supports Open Arms against Italy and Spain
  • Investigation: The Office of the Attorney General refers the Vox complaint against the Open Arms to the Office of the National Court
  • Politics: Open Arms and the G-7 summit deepen the tension between PSOE and Podemos
  • Cast. Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and Luxembourg will welcome immigrants from the Open Arms

Acting Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo, has indicated that Spain will host 15 migrants from the Open Arms humanitarian ship, according to the cast that was initially made in Romania .

"In principle, the distribution we made including Romania, were 15, we assume that this will be the distribution that will be maintained," Calvo said in statements to the media during his visit this Thursday, August 22 to a center of humanitarian welcome for African women and their children in Córdoba .

On August 15, six countries of the European Union offered to welcome migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the Proactiva Open Arms NGO ship. Among them were Portugal , Spain , France , Germany , Luxembourg and Romania . Although, later, it was removed from the Romania list since with the other five countries the needs were met.

The Vice President of the Government has insisted that in that first distribution with Romania, the quota planned for Spain was 15 people. "We will bring you to our country in a humanitarian response that the president initiated when our ship left Rota," he stressed.

In addition, Calvo has argued that picking up migrants on the Spanish Navy's ship Audaz is "much safer and much easier" than having chartered a plane.

"It has been the logistics of the Ministry of Defense who from the outset said that it was much safer to transfer by sea than by air. It is much safer and much easier for our armed forces this option that we have left to technically assess their own military, "he explained.

Also, the acting vice president recalled that the Audacious was already on his way to Lampedusa and had "almost half of the route made" as if he had turned around. "He left Rota about 5:00 pm almost 48 hours ago, the decision of the acting president, I think it was a decision worthy of the country we govern," he emphasized.

Specifically, he pointed out that the Government's intention was to pick up all the migrants who were on board the Open Arms to take them to safe harbor and recalled that it was on the way of the Spanish ship when the intervention of the Italian Prosecutor's Office took place.

"It was already more useful and efficient to finish your route and bring to the quota that corresponds to us that had been negotiated many days ago with the European Commission ," he said.

Now, as he has qualified, Spain will be almost from the first moment to pick up the migrants that it deserves to welcome and has extolled the "solidarity" of Spain , "a country that respects human rights within its borders but also to those who come from outside".

"We are a country that has to maintain a border with a lot of pressure such as the Strait, which for many years has resources and public instruments for the rescue and solidarity response and we are above all a solidarity society. The Spaniards are people who mobilize with a lot of heart, "he said, to point out that it does not rule out that municipalities and regional governments are offered to receive migrants.

On the comparison with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, for his statements on Wednesday about the possible sanctions against Open Arms , the vice president has ironized about her resemblance to Salvini.

"Everyone knows that I look a lot like Salvini all my life, that I play in the same game as Salvini, that I have the same ideas as Salvini and that I have been living all my life on the Spanish left, on the PSOE and on feminism , that is to say that Salvini and I are exactly the same. This can be said in the month of August perfectly ", he has ironized.

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  • Spain
  • Open arms
  • Madrid
  • PSOE
  • European Union
  • Carmen Calvo
  • Refugees
  • immigration

MediterraneanMatteo Salvini, a minister with powers over the head of the Government

Immigration The Open Arms and the G-7 summit deepen the tension between PSOE and Podemos

Politics Open Arms accuses Carmen Calvo of "misrepresenting" for saying that the ship "did not want to enter Malta and went to Italy"