Matteo Salvini has told a charity rescue ship loaded with migrants that it could drift in the Mediterranean “until New Year’s Eve” after he used a new law to stop its passengers landing in Italy.
The Sea Watch 3, operated by a German charity, was stranded off the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday. She was carrying 42 migrants rescued off Libya, including a 12-year-old boy who is one of three unaccompanied minors on board.
In a compromise deal Italy agreed to take ten migrants to shore at the weekend, including families with newborn babies, the sick and pregnant women.
Matteo Salvini has enacted a decree allowing the government to fine charity boats
REMO CASILLI/REUTERS
But Mr Salvini, Italy’s hardline anti-migrant deputy prime minister, promised that the remaining migrants on board would not be allowed into the country. The