France grants port to 234 passengers onboard migrant rescue ship after Italy refuses entry

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France grants port to 234 passengers onboard migrant rescue ship after Italy refuses entry
France grants port to 234 passengers onboard migrant rescue ship after Italy refuses entry. Image: Alessio Tricani/Shutterstock.com

France has decided to accept all the passengers who have been stranded on a migrant rescue ship for the past two weeks in the Mediterranean Sea.

The ship was first denied entry by the Italian Government but became a part of a diplomatic rift after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni granted permission to three other private rescue ships to dock in the country, according to a report by Associated Press on Thursday.

PM Meloni then announced that France had agreed to accept the rescue vessel known as Ocean Viking, which according to the report was false.

France will welcome 230 Ocean Viking passengers at the military port in the city of Toulon on Friday, November 11, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Darmanin stated that the passengers will then be divided among France, Germany, and other European nations.

“France will take measures in the coming hours to tighten the border security with Italy” and adjust bilateral relations accordingly, Darmanin said in a quote published in Associated Press on Thursday, November 10. He added: “France deeply regrets that Italy did not accept to behave like a responsible European state.”

The rescue ship Ocean Viking which is operated by European charity group SOS Mediterranee, had already left for France on Wednesday, November 9, in hopes to get a safe passage.


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