Tension rose a notch on Wednesday between France and Italy around the Ocean Viking, the last of four humanitarian ships stranded in the Mediterranean with 234 migrants on board, Paris denouncing Rome's "unacceptable" refusal to let it go dock.

Of the more than 1,000 migrants picked up at sea by four ambulance boats, after fleeing Libya on makeshift boats, only those rescued by the Ocean Viking of the NGO SOS Méditerranée were still stranded off Italy on Wednesday.


Directed by:

Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • More than 1,000 migrants were picked up at sea by four ambulance boats, after fleeing Libya on makeshift boats.

  • Only those rescued by the Ocean Viking from the NGO SOS Méditerranée were still stranded off Italy on Wednesday.

  • The last of four humanitarian ships stranded in the Mediterranean has 234 migrants on board.

  • Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed on Wednesday that this sorting was a signal to force Europe to help Italy more.

  • SOS Méditerranée, noting "the total impasse on the side of Italy", which did not accede to any of its 43 requests for a safe port, had finally requested assistance from France on Tuesday.

    But the ship "still had no official response" as of Wednesday morning.

  • Tuesday evening, the services of the new Italian Prime Minister of the extreme right Giorgia Meloni had made it known that she thanked France, which, according to them, would have accepted to welcome the Ocean Viking.

  • As of Tuesday evening, Paris had opposed a denial to these assertions, denouncing the "unacceptable behavior" of Italy, "contrary to the law of the sea and the spirit of European solidarity".

    Rome must "play its role" and "respect its European commitments", French government spokesman Olivier Véran insisted on

    Franceinfo

    radio on Wednesday .

  • The president of the executive of Corsica Gilles Simeoni affirmed Tuesday that the island was “ready to temporarily welcome the Ocean Viking”.

    The mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan for his part told AFP on Wednesday "that it was the honor of France to welcome them".

  • A standoff had already opposed the Europeans to Italy four years ago, under the government of Matteo Salvini, on the reception of humanitarian boats collecting migrants.

    Paris and Rome were in particular hung around the fate of the Aquarius, the former ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which had finally had to land in Valencia in Spain.

  • With the arrival in Rome of the most right-wing government since the Second World War, which has pledged to observe a hard line vis-à-vis migrants, tensions have resumed.

  • The left and the right were divided on Wednesday on the situation of the ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée which is heading for Corsica with 234 migrants on board.

  • Hosting the Ocean Viking boat in France is a “humanitarian emergency” for some, a “mistake” for others.

  • Since the beginning of the year, 1,891 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 1,337 in the central Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

  • Humanitarian aid

  • Slideshow

  • Immigration

  • Italy

  • Mediterranean

  • Migrants