Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Thursday condemned as “absolutely incomprehensible” Paris’ decision to retaliate against Rome for refusing to dock a migrant ship, forcing France to take it in, Reuters and Agerpres reported.
“The reaction of France to the request to accept 234 migrants, while Italy has accepted 90,000 this year alone, is completely incomprehensible,” the minister responded in a statement.
The Ocean Viking ship with 230 migrants on board will be received by France in the southern port of Toulon on Friday and a third of the migrant passengers will be resettled in France, Paris announced, as it criticized Italy’s “incomprehensible option” not to accept the humanitarian ship.
“We will receive this ship in an exceptional way, given the 15 days of waiting at sea to which the Italian authorities subjected the passengers,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Thursday.
In protest, France decided to “immediately” suspend the reception planned for this summer for the 3,500 refugees currently in Italy.
France, in turn, will “draw conclusions” from Italy’s position on other aspects of “bilateral relations,” the French minister also said.
Italy blames itself for being entrusted with the responsibility of managing migrant flows
“We do not understand why Italy should voluntarily accept what others do not want to accept,” Piantedosi replied in a statement.
“This year, almost 90,000 people landed in Italy. Thirteen European countries have pledged to accept a total of 8,000 people, that is, less than a tenth. So far, 117 people (0.13% of the arrivals) have been taken into custody, of which 38 are from France (0.04%), the Italian minister said.
He condemned the desire to “impose the principle that Italy is the only possible European destination for illegal immigrants” and the fact that, despite declarations of European solidarity, the peninsula “has so far faced this problem alone”.
“Countries of entry cannot alone bear sole responsibility for managing the flow” of migrants, Piantedosi concluded.
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