Spain to take in 629 migrants rejected by Italy
Monday, June 11, 2018 @ 11:15 PM
SPAIN will take in the 629 migrants on board the Aquarius 'for humanitarian reasons' after Italy's right-wing government refused to let them dock in the country.
The would-be refugees were rescued by the charity SOS Méditerranée, but Italian authorities sent them to Malta instead.
Malta, however, also refused to let them disembark on national territory.
Pedro Sánchez's government volunteered to take them, and they are set to dock in the port of Valencia in the next few hours.
Regional president of Valencia, Ximo Puig – on the same party as Sánchez – says he has already given authorisation to Spain's deputy president Carmen Calvo for the craft to dock in the harbour of the country's third-largest city.
Puig slammed other European governments for 'abandoning' the migrants in the Mediterranean, calling it 'deeply unfair'.
Valencia's deputy regional president Mònica Oltra, from the left-wing party Compromís, recalled that her and Puig's cabinet had set up a complete refugee settlement system 'many years ago'.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com