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Migrant crisis in the Med: Sánchez steps in

In an unexpected move, Pedro Sánchez gave instructions yesterday to allow the vessel the Aquarius entry to the port of Valencia. The ship, with 629 migrants aboard had been denied entry to Italian and Maltese ports by their respective governments. On board the vessel belonging to the French NGO SOS Méditerranée which from Sunday has idled 35 miles from Italy and 27 from Malta, there are 123 unaccompanied minors, including young children, and seven pregnant women. All were rescued in the Mediterranean but, until yesterday, had not received authorisation to dock in any port.

“It is our obligation to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer safe harbour to these people thus fulfilling the obligations of international law,” said the Spanish government in the statement that was released yesterday. The Italian government thanks Spain for its “gesture of solidarity.”

The version given by the xenophobic far right Lega’s Matteo Salvini, also Italian minister of the interior, is that Italy’s demands for easing the pressure on the country have finally been met.

The decision by the new government in Spain was applauded in Brussels as “an act of great humanity and solidarity” and an example of how European migratory policy should be implemented.

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