France is not ready to allow migrants carried by the Mediterranean rescue ship Aquarius, hailing from Libya, to disembark at its southern port of Marseille, French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) France is not ready to allow migrants carried by the Mediterranean rescue ship Aquarius, hailing from Libya, to disembark at its southern port of Marseille, French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday.
"For the moment it's 'no,'" Le Maire told the BFMTV broadcaster, asked whether the Aquarius would be granted permission to dock in the French port of Marseille.
Le Maire added that France would not foster economic migration, and that the European Union had to work together to tackle the migration crisis.
"In the questions of migration, one has to be firm and clear, respect the European regulations, accept those who have right for asylum and those who are threatened in their home countries ... and to say 'no' to economic migration ... If we do not respect these common rules, we would not handle the challenge of migration," Le Maire said.
On Monday, the SOS Mediterranee charity asked the French authorities to allow the Aquarius, carrying 58 migrants from Libya, dock in Marseille "on exceptional grounds," calling it "the only option." The French prime minister's office reacted by calling for a "European solution" and evoking the rule of the closest port, under which a ship has to dock in the closest port, which Marseille was not.
On Tuesday, however, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told the RTL broadcaster that the Aquarius was no longer heading for Marseille, since a rubber boat with some 100 people on board was spotted, after which the migrant vessel changed course to help it.
Over the past months, the issue of migrant rescue vessels became especially acute, with a number of European states, to where migrants fleeing armed conflicts and economic crises in Africa and the middle East are arriving by sea, refusing to accept new arrivals. In June, Italy and Malta denied entry to the Aquarius, which was at the time carrying over 600 rescued migrants. Spain eventually allowed the vessel to dock in Valencia. However, both Spain and Italy denied entry to another rescue vessel, the Lifeline, later in June.
