• Immigration: From Aquarius to Open Arms, the boomerang of Pedro Sánchez with the refugees

The government washes its hands with the Open Arms . Not only has he not shown any sign that he will bring the humanitarian ship to Spain , but, until yesterday, he had not even made steps before the EU to coordinate efforts in order to expedite the distribution among European countries of the 121 people rescued a week ago.

Gone are the times - in fact, it was only a year ago - when Pedro Sánchez welcomed the Aquarius and the Open Arms with open arms, announced the withdrawal of the concertinas and promised to end the hot returns. Now the acting vice president, Carmen Calvo, has adopted - for the first time - a very hard speech in which she reproaches the EU that the Strait is the "southern border of Europe" and Spain has to attend to the "very important migratory pressure" rescuing immigrants "every day". It is, on another scale, the same recurring complaint made by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, when he refuses to be the border guardian of European countries.

For the moment both Spain and Italy have acted the same in relation to the Open Arms . No one has moved a finger, despite the fact that the 121 rescued - about thirty of them, minors - begin to suffer post-traumatic stress after seven days on the ship.

29 miles from Lampedusa

The Open Arms is in international waters, southwest of Malta and 29 miles east of the Italian island of Lampedusa . Malta and Italy, which are the closest safe ports, have denied permission to disembark. Not only that, but Italy has banned its entry into its waters and threatens to confiscate the ship. The president of the Spanish NGO, carscar Camps , does not seek to dock in Spain because in June, after six months blocked, they sailed to the Central Mediterranean without permission from the Merchant Marine and, if they return to our country, the ship will be at least immobilized and fined for circumventing orders that prevented them from going out to rescue.

What the NGO does want is for the Government to mediate before the EU, like other times. That is why Camps sent a letter to Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday asking the European Commission (EC) to coordinate a procedure to expedite the distribution of the rescued among the EU countries. Camps asks him, in other words, to activate the system that would allow docking, a procedure required by the EC to intervene. But the government refuses to do so. Calvo herself admitted Wednesday that Spain has not formally asked the EC to coordinate a solution to accelerate the landing. "No, we don't have to do it," he told reporters, and reiterated that the reception of those rescued by the Open Arms "is not an exclusive problem of Spain", but of all member states. Also from the EC they reiterated this Wednesday that they still did not receive a request from Spain to coordinate the distribution of the rescued and insisted that they have no powers to designate a port that allows the landing, according to Europa Press.

On other occasions Spain has been more proactive, especially in the resolution of the second Aquarius crisis, in mid-August last year, where, after a long negotiation, the ship docked at the Maltese port of Valletta . Then Calvo presumed that Pedro Sánchez's leadership, in coordination with France, made it possible for him to reach a safe harbor. Then, Spain offered to host 60 of the 141 migrants and the rest was divided by France , Germany , Malta, Portugal and Luxembourg . In November, the Government also carried out diplomatic efforts in relation to the Spanish fishing vessel Nuestra Madre Loreto and the 11 passengers stayed in Malta.

Low profile

Now Sanchez shows low profile. And even Salvini ironizes: "The Open Arms has been in the Mediterranean for six days and now threatens to enter Italy. It would have had plenty of time to reach Spain, the country of the NGO, which gave the flag to the ship and where some mayors have shown themselves in favor of receiving it, "he wrote on Twitter.

The president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, aligned himself with Salvini, who defended that "the only way" is to "fine and outlaw" NGOs "that collaborate with the mafias", as Italy will do after the approval of the decree that raises one million euros fines for those who enter the waters of this country without authorization to rescue.

Meanwhile, Compromís and En Marea affect the Government to "block" the entry of the ship in Spain and not make "any official movement". The governments of Catalonia , the Basque Country , Extremadura and - at the beginning - the Valencian Community , as well as the Valencia City Council, offer to take charge of the 121 rescued, a gesture that highlights Sánchez's inaction.

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  • Refugees

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