Spain offers to receive ‘Open Arms’ migrants

Bloomberg

Spain’s government will make available the southern port of Algeciras to receive the migrant rescue ship Open Arms given the refusal by Italy to allow it to dock.
Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is taking the step given the “emergency situation” facing the Spanish vessel with more than 100 migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa, his government said in an emailed statement on Sunday.
“The inconceivable reply from the Italian authorities, and specifically of the Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, to close their ports, and the difficulties expressed by other countries in the central Mediterranean have led Spain to once again lead the reply to a humanitarian crisis,” the government said.
“Good,” Salvini, said on Twitter, in response to the news that Spain is readying a port to take Open Arms. “He who perseveres, wins.”
Sanchez has pushed for European Union nations to share the task of taking on African migrants abandoned in the Mediterranean. In June last year, he allowed vessels carrying 629 migrants to dock in Valencia after Italy and then Malta refused entry.
Salvini himself has used the standoff over the Open Arms to play the anti-immigration champion as the League Party leader starts a push for new elections that could see him leading the next government in Italy.