Madrid (AFP)
The Spanish government announced Thursday that it is ready to accept some of the migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the Spanish Open Arms humanitarian ship, provided that a distribution agreement is reached between several European countries.
"Our country is willing to participate in a balanced distribution of migrants welcomed on the boat" currently stationed in Italian territorial waters, said the government in a statement, explaining working with the European Commission and other member states "to reach to a common, European, orderly and united solution ".
"The European Union must face the migratory challenge with mechanisms of collaboration in which the Member States participate, bearing in mind that this is not an exclusive problem of the riparian states, but of the whole (of the EU), which must therefore be tackled together, "says the text.
Since early August, date of the beginning of the mission of the Open Arms that has helped rescue more than 150 migrants off the coast of Libya, Madrid claimed that their fate was not within its jurisdiction and they had to land in a " safe harbor "Italian.
The interim socialist government of Pedro Sanchez insisted on the numerous rescues carried out by Spanish maritime rescue off the Spanish coast.
On Monday, the captain of the ship had applied for asylum for 31 minors to the Spanish Embassy in Malta, but Madrid had declared it inadmissible.
On Wednesday, the Italian justice finally allowed the Open Arms to head to the island of Lampedusa by suspending a decree of the Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini prohibiting Italian territorial waters. Salvini signed a new decree to block the boat, which the Italian Defense Minister refused to sign on Thursday morning.
© 2019 AFP