While announcing the news on Thursday, Gérald Darmanin also expressed his anger, denouncing Italy’s “incomprehensible choice” not to welcome this boat.
Article written by
Published
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
L’ocean viking finally has a docking port. The ship, which is currently off the coast of Corsica with 231 migrants on board, is expected to arrive “Friday late morning” in Toulon, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday 10 November.“It is on an exceptional basis that we welcome this boat, given the fifteen days of waiting at sea that the Italian authorities made the passengers undergo”does he have.
>> “Ocean Viking”: follow the evolution of the situation in our live
If the decision to welcome an “ambulance boat” to France for the first time was a “duty of humanity”according to Gérald Darmanin, the latter also expressed his anger, denouncing the “incomprehensible choice” of Italy not to welcome this boat. “We now have to be able to organize things differently to [ne] not that Italy can both benefit from European solidarity while being selfish when refugees, especially children, show up” at its ports.
To be able to dock at Toulon is “a relief tinged with bitterness”, Director of SOS Méditerranée, which charters the Ocean Viking, Sophie Beau, told AFP.. This long blockage at sea “shows that it is urgent for European states to set up a permanent distribution mechanism” for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, after having generally fled Libya on board makeshift boats. Gérald Darmanin clarified that passengers who do not meet the criteria for asylum seekers “will be renewed directly”.