Migrants: the Open Arms refuses to land in Spain, the situation remains frozen

• Tweeter

• republish

After the refusal of the NGO Open Arms to dock in Algeciras in Spain, the situation remains frozen in the Mediterranean. ALESSANDRO SERRANO / AFP

For a fortnight, the humanitarian ship Open Arms has parked in front of the Italian island of Lampedusa. A hundred migrants remain stuck in the face of Italy's intransigence, which stubbornly refuses to welcome them. While the situation on the boat is deteriorating day by day, Spain has offered to open its ports to the ship. But the crew refused. The situation now seems fixed.

The Open Arms still has not moved. It is still 800 meters from the coast facing a beach not far from the port. " The island has always been home to migrants, " one resident told Monday our special envoy to Lampedusa, Juliette Gheerbrandt . He adds that the population is very divided on this issue.

But nothing has really changed in recent years, and right now it's time for holidays on the Italian island . The season is in full swing and the presence of the Open Arms does not seem to trouble the holidaymakers.

Spanish opposition stand up against Pedro Sanchez's decision

The NGO Proactiva Open Arms has issued a new statement this Monday morning. She considers incomprehensible the agreement that would have found Spain to send migrants to the Balearic Islands.

The island is more than three days away while the coast where the ship sails is in sight. The situation on board becomes catastrophic . " It is urgent to end this inhuman situation ," the statement ends.

🔴 https://t.co/6BnF6LCMab

The initiative of the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, to host the ship of the NGO provoked an outcry from the opposition, as reported by our correspondent in Madrid, François Musseau .

" The least we can do is warn us beforehand, " said José Ignacio Landaluce, Mayor of Algeciras, Andalusia. He is very angry with the leader of the socialist government.

In his eyes, the landing of migrants from the Open Arms in his city is " an unachievable fad ", because the ship is " far too far and, in any case, it is angelic marketing . " We can not accommodate all the survivors at sea, " he concluded.

The same goes for the whole of the Spanish People's Party, the big party of the conservative opposition. Its leader in Andalusia Juanma Moreno asked Pedro Sanchez to finish with " the effects of announcement ".

" The migrants are next to the Italian coast, that's where they have to land and certainly not in Spain, " he added.

# Andalucía es tierra solidaria y de acogida y, además, tiene dignidad. Pedro Sánchez ha vuelto has despreciar to Andalucía of the Puerto de Algeciras for Open Arms, directed to al Gobierno autónómico. Basta of bandazos. Exigimos lealtad institucional, coordination and respeto

The conservative press, like Abc and El Mundo, is also angry at the " irresponsibility of the socialist leader ", who last year welcomed the migrants from the ship Aquarius in the port of Valencia.

For the liberal party Ciudadanos, we must define a common European policy for the reception of refugees at sea. And certainly not "to be at the mercy of the unpredictable announcements of Pedro Sanchez ".