French President Emmanuel Macron says that Italy "playing politics" with a boat full of shipwrecked Libyan refugees denied entry to Italy, and the Italian government has displayed "cynicism and irresponsibility" for closing its ports.
Mr Macron's spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said the French president recalled that "in cases of distress, those with the nearest coastline have a responsibility to respond".
"There is a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility in the Italian government's behaviour," he quoted President Macron as saying.
Most migrants who survive the perilous voyages from North Africa end up in overcrowded Italian camps, and Italy says its EU partners must ease the burden. -BBC
The French scolding comes after Italy's new Interior Minister of less than two weeks, Matteo Salvini, made good on his warning last weekend that "the good times for illegals are over" after years of unchecked migration primarily from North Africa.
In response to Macron's comments, Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte hit back - accusing Paris of being hypocritical, cynical and rigid.
"The statements around the Aquarius affair that come from France are surprising and show a serious lack of knowledge about what is really happening. Italy can not accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have always preferred to turn their backs when it comes to immigration," Conte's office said.
After Malta refused to accept the 629 shipwrecked migrants over the weekend, Spain agreed to take in the refugees - a group which includes 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children (though we're guessing nobody is checking birth certificates) and seven pregnant women.
As we reported earlier Tuesday, the refugees will be escorted to Valencia, Spain after SOS Mediterranee said that they had run out of food and would not be able to make it on their own.
🔴 UPDATE 09h39: #Aquarius received confirmation: Port of Safety is #Valencia, #Spain. Teams relieved that solution starts to be found. However, results are unnecessary prolongation of time at sea for already vulnerable people & reduction of SAR capacity. Supplies now on board. pic.twitter.com/XnqDcS1JnQ— SOS MEDITERRANEE GER (@SOSMedGermany) June 12, 2018
#BREAKING First transfer of people from #Aquarius to Italian coast guard vessel. 90 people were taken just now. More than 400 left to be transferred - according to initial plan. pic.twitter.com/MyixHQdBHm— Anelise Borges (@AnneliseBorges) June 12, 2018
Non-governmental organization (NGO) ship MV Aquarius, run by the group SOS Mediterranee, picked up 629 shipwrecked sub-Saharan Africans who were stranded in inflatable boats last weekend with the intention of bringing them to Sicily. The group includes 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children and seven pregnant women.
The minors are aged between 13 and 17 and come from Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria and Sudan, according to Anelise Borges - a journalist on the ship.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that France is ready to help Spain receive the migrants - though apparently sending a naval vessel to provide the transport currently being footed by Italian taxpayers isn't something France is doing.
French Prime Minister @EPhilippePM says France is ready to help Spain receive the 629 people rescued in the Mediterranean this weekend. Meanwhile aboard the #Aquarius, the transfers continue and people say they are happy that Europe is finally going to welcome them to its shores https://t.co/ozb6oTfcpi— Anelise Borges (@AnneliseBorges) June 12, 2018
Macron’s Libya diplomacy is just one irritant in increasingly tension-filled Franco-Italian relations, in which Macron has been also accused of duplicity and hypocrisy in his diplomatic conduct with Italy. In May, after meeting Gentiloni in Paris, Macron announced: “we have not listened enough to Italy’s cry for help on the migration crisis.” But Macron’s position since hasn’t changed much from Francois Hollande, his predecessor in the Elysee Palace, to the Italian government’s rising anger.
France has butted heads with Italy's populists on migration, while the European Commission watches from the sidelines.
Rome's decision to block women, children, and injured people from care in Italy earlier this week flagrantly disregarded the law of the sea, which says that "in cases of distress, those with the nearest coastline have a responsibility to respond", French president Emmanuel Macron's spokesman said on Tuesday (12 June).
There was also "a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility in the Italian government's behaviour", Macron added in his own words.
The blocked boat, the Aquarius, carrying 629 African nationals from Libya, was rescued in Italy's zone of responsibility, but had to wait three days at sea before being taken in by Spain.
That left seven pregnant women, 123 unaccompanied minors, and 15 people suffering from chemical burns, among the others, to be cared for by charities in harsh conditions.
It also left EU migration policy in disarray ahead of a summit on precisely that subject in late June, prompting Macron's reference to Italy's "cynical" timing.
It posed the question who would take care of future boats if Italy continued to shirk its obligations.
But Rome's policy remained unclear, despite the stance by its new leaders, as Italy took in 937 other migrants who had been rescued by an EU naval mission, Operation Sophia, on Tuesday.
"I'm glad the French have discovered responsibility: If they want, we'll help them. Let them open their ports and we'll transfer a few of the people to France," Italy's deputy PM, Luigi Di Maio, from the 5 Star Movement (5MS) party, crowed at Macron the same day.
"Spain wants to denounce us, France says that I'm 'nauseating.' I want to work calmly with everybody but with a principle: #firsttheitalians," Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini, from the far-right League party, said.
"Italy cannot accept hypocritical lessons from countries that have always preferred to turn their backs when it comes to immigration," prime minister Giuseppe Conte added.
But the European Commission declined to take sides, while fretting over the future of "the whole European project".
Some of the "rhetoric" on migration from EU capitals was "very dangerous" and Aquarius-type "incidents" could harm trust, migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos warned on Tuesday.
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