Italy refused to welcome the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, with 234 migrants on board.
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France criticizes a “incomprehensible choice” a “unacceptable behavior” from Italy, after the refusal of the neighboring country to welcome the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking. Consequently, the government announced on Thursday that the ship would arrive in the port of Toulon on Friday, November 11. “I made it clear, at the request of the President of the Republic, that it is on an exceptional basis that we welcome this boat, in view of the fifteen days of waiting at sea that the Italian authorities made the passengers undergo”declared the minister at the end of the Council of Ministers.
En protest against the refusal of this country to allow the Ocean Viking to dock on its shores, the French government has decided to suspend “immediate effect” the expected reception this summer of 3,500 refugees currently in Italy.
The Minister of the Interior recalled that a European mechanism allowed relocation to other European countries of refugees who had arrived in particular in Italy within the framework of international law and the law of the sea. “all other participants (in this mechanism), in particular Germany” to also suspend the planned reception of refugees currently in Italy.