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A view of the reception center for migrants disembarked from the "Open Arms" on 21 August 2019. Taimaz SZIRNIKS / AFP

Migrants landed last night from the Spanish ship Open Arms , who finally landed in Lampedusa after a court decision, spent their first night at the temporary reception center. The Ocean Viking has not yet found a home port.

With our special correspondent in Lampedusa, Juliette Gheerbrant

The reception center is isolated on a hill, a closed place, well guarded, but where the migrants are not detained, they manage to go out and circulate freely on the island. How long will they stay there? Hard to say, even if the European Commission wants them to be taken care of as quickly as possible by the countries that have accepted to welcome them. Ofpra, in charge of asylum applications in France, sends staff here today, but the procedures can be long and uncertain.

Open Arms is not at the end of its difficulties either. The Spanish Government recalled that the ship was not authorized to make rescue at sea. The NGO risks prosecution. Is it possible to prohibit a boat from respecting international maritime law that requires the rescue of boats in danger? This is one of the innumerable questions that arise today.

It is now towards the Ocean Viking , the last humanitarian boat present in the Mediterranean, that the eyes are turned. Like the Open Arms until yesterday, the boat is still waiting for the designation of a port where to disembark the 356 people it has collected on board. No response has been made to repeated requests from the crew, said Wednesday Frédéric Penard, director of operations of the NGO SOS Méditerranée who manages the boat with Médecins sans Frontières.

France has said it is ready to welcome " a significant number of migrants " present aboard the Ocean Viking , said his side Wednesday the French presidency. But Paris maintains its refusal to receive the ship in the name of the " legal principle " that wants it to be hosted in " the nearest safe harbor ", in this case " logically Malta or Italy ".

The Ocean Viking , flying the Norwegian flag, is for the tenth day, practically stopped, in the Sicilian canal between Malta and the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa