Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Investigated After Migrants Kept Aboard Ship For 6 Days

After six days, 134 migrants were allowed to disembark an Italian coastguard vessel docked in Sicily.

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini refused to let the migrants off the boat until he was assured other European nations would help by taking in some of the migrants.

Salvini, who is also the country's interior minister and leader of the far-right League, is now under investigation for his role in the detention.

The Ubaldo Diciotti vessel originally picked up 190 people on Aug. 15 from an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean Sea near the Italian island of Lampedusa. Thirteen people were evacuated for emergency medical treatment. Most of the migrants are from Eritrea, the BBC reports.

When the boat docked at the Sicilian port of Catania last Monday, Salvini initially allowed 27 children travelling alone to leave the vessel and then 16 more people, who doctors identified as needing medical care. The remaining migrants were not allowed off until Salvini was assured they would "go elsewhere," according to the Guardian.

Following the announcement of the formal investigation into his role in the standoff, Salvini granted permission for the remaining migrants to leave the boat on Saturday.

The Italian church will reportedly take in the majority of the migrants, while Albania offered to take 20 migrants and Ireland said it would take 20-25 migrants.

The resolution came as the U. N. appealed to EU members to "urgently" offer relocation places for the migrants.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged the European States to "do the right thing" and offer asylum for people "rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need."

"The time has come to end the back-and-forth that has seen countries competing in a race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea," Grandi said in a statement.

"It is dangerous and immoral to put the lives of refugees and asylum-seekers at risk while States engage in a political tug-of-war on long-term solutions," he said.

According to EU rules, people must seek asylum in the location they arrive, but Italy has started barring boats from docking.

The BBC's Danny Eberhardt told NPR that Salvini is being investigated for suspected illegal confinement and abuse of power but that Salvini shows no signs of backing away from his policy of blocking ports to migrants.

"I think it will be hard to stop us," Salvini said to a room full of his supporters on Saturday. "Because they can investigate me, they can arrest me. But they can't arrest the desire for change of 60 million Italians."

"The next ship can turn around and go back where it came from because our limit has been reached," Salvini said. </s> The migrants, mainly from Eritrea, had been stranded in the port of Catania since Monday because the government refused to let them off the boat until other EU states agreed to take some of them in.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Albania had offered to accept 20 of the migrants and Ireland 20-25, while the rest would be housed by Italy’s Catholic Church “at zero cost” to the Italian taxpayer.

“The church has opened its heart and opened its wallet,” Salvini, from the right-wing League party, told supporters at a rally in Pinzolo in northern Italy on Saturday evening.

Salvini, who has led a popular crackdown against immigration since the government took office in June, also announced that he had been placed under investigation by a Sicilian prosecutor for abuse of office, kidnapping and illegal arrest.

“Being investigated for defending the rights of Italians is a disgrace,” he said.

On Saturday, the United Nations called for reason from all sides after a meeting of envoys from 10 EU states in Brussels a day earlier failed to break the deadlock.

“Frightened people who may be in need of international protection should not be caught in the maelstrom of politics,” the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement.

The agency appealed to EU member states to “urgently” offer relocation places to the rescued people, in line with an agreement at an EU summit in June, and in the meantime, urged Italy to allow “the immediate disembarkation of those on board.”

Rome had refused to back down, despite criticism from rights groups and the opposition, with Salvini saying he considered the attacks he received to be a “badge of honor.”

The only help from within the bloc came late on Saturday from Ireland, whose offer to take in 20-25 migrants followed a pledge from non-EU member Albania to take in 20.

Italy’s Foreign Ministry called Albania’s offer “a signal of great solidarity and friendship that Italy greatly appreciates.”

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attacked the EU for its lack of support and said Italy may refuse to back the bloc’s multiyear budget currently under discussion.

He said on Facebook that Friday’s meeting in Brussels had been “a defeat for Europe”, and “a clear violation of the spirit of solidarity” that should be a founding principle of the Union.

Before the breakthrough late on Saturday, thirteen migrants - seven women and six men - were ordered off the boat by doctors after a check-up carried out at around midday.

They finally left the boat one-by-one some six hours later, stepping down a flight of steps to touch dry land for the first time since leaving Libya at least 10 days ago. The 13 were taken by ambulance to Catania’s Garibaldi hospital.

Italian media reported that among them there were three cases of suspected tuberculosis and two of suspected pneumonia. Medical officials on the spot did not confirm this.

The remaining 137 migrants disembarked in the early hours of Sunday to be taken to a reception center in the Sicilian city of Messina, from which they will be distributed to the Church dioceses as well as Ireland and Albania.

More than 650,000 people have reached Italian shores since 2014, and even though the numbers have fallen steeply in the last year, Rome says it will not let any more rescue ships dock unless the migrants are shared out around the EU.

“The next ship can turn around and go back where it came from because our limit has been reached,” Salvini said.

Earlier this week, Italy let 27 unaccompanied minors leave the vessel. Prior to that, another 13 people needing urgent hospital attention were allowed to disembark.

During their five days docked at Catania, the mostly young men on board sheltered from the sun under a large green tarpaulin that covered around half the deck, with clothes hanging from it to dry. Some occasionally waved to reporters gathered on the quayside.

Around 200 protesters gathered at the port on Saturday, some waving left-wing flags, calling for the migrants to be allowed off. They later skirmished with police.

Meanwhile, in Rome, prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio questioned several Interior Ministry officials as part of his criminal investigation over the migrants being held against their will.

At that time, the investigation was said to be against “unknown persons”, but Salvini said he was responsible for his ministry’s actions, challenging the prosecutor to arrest him.

The 5-Star Movement, the League’s coalition partner, has so far backed Salvini’s hard line, and its Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, who is responsible for the country’s ports, on Saturday renewed the government’s attacks on the EU.

“Nobody can give lessons to Italy on its humanitarian efforts”, he said. “The government is only asking the EU give some sense to its own existence.” </s> ROME (AP) - Italy's Catholic bishops offered to care for a majority of 140 migrants the country's government had prevented from leaving an Italian coast guard ship docked for days in a Sicilian harbor because politics shouldn't be practiced at the expense of the poor, prominent churchmen said Sunday.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Italian bishops' conference, told Italian state TV the bishops worked with Italy's Interior Ministry "in a spirit of collaboration" to help end the stalemate over where the asylum-seekers the coast guard ship rescued would go.

Parishes will care for some 100 migrants, while Albania and Ireland each will accept about 20 under an arrangement announced late Saturday night by Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte. The majority of the migrants were disembarked from the Diciotti at a dock in Catania early Sunday.

The ship rescued 190 migrants on Aug. 16, most of them young men fleeing harsh rule in Eritrea, and docked in Catania four days later. Anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused to let passengers who were not minors or ill off the ship until fellow European Union nations volunteered to take the asylum-seekers.

Except for Ireland, none did. Albania is not an EU member, and Cardinal Bassetti expressed appreciation to leaders there and in Ireland, which Pope Francis was visiting over the weekend. Francis, who as pope also is the bishop of Rome, has used his papacy to stress the need for society to care for migrants and others in need.

On Sunday, Bassetti urged more "involvement by Europe, but also by the whole world" in addressing the needs of migrants and refugees.

In separate comments, another bishops' conference official, the Rev. Ivan Maffeis, told Sky TG24 TV that the Italian churchmen got involved because "you can't do politics on the backs of the poor."

A government office that safeguards the rights of people who have been detained determined last week that the migrants were being kept on the ship unjustly and without proper authorization. A Sicily-based prosecutor formally notified Salvini on Saturday he was being investigated for suspected abduction, illegal arrest and abuse of office.

Any prosecution of Salvini would be handled by a special tribunal for government ministers, and Salvini's fellow senators would have to vote on whether to lift his Parliamentary immunity if the case progresses.

Salvini staunchly defended his actions, saying he was keeping Italians safe. Much of his electoral base blames migrants for crime.

Frances D'Emilio is on Twitter at www.twitter.com /fdemilio </s> Prosecutors in Sicily on Saturday opened an inquiry into Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for "illegal confinement, illegal arrest and abuse of power", reports said, over his refusal to allow over 100 rescued migrants off a coastguard ship.

At the same time, Salivini suggested that an end to the drama could be in sight telling a political meeting "the migrants on board the Diciotti ship will disembark in the coming hours", adding that they would be taken in by the Italian church "by bishops who are opening their doors, their hearts and their wallets".

Authorities earlier allowed a dozen migrants to leave the Diciotti where they have been stranded for days, as it also hailed Albania for offering to accept some of those on board.

Rome has blocked most of the migrants from stepping off the boat which docked at the port of Catania in Sicily on Monday night, leaving them trapped as Italy pushes other EU nations to take them in.

Their fate has sparked a fresh immigration row between Italy's populist government and the EU, with Rome on Friday threatening to pull some of its funding for the bloc as a "compensatory measure" if it refuses to help.

Prosecutors in Sicily said that they were now investigating Salvini in connection with the migrants' plight. The minister earlier brushed aside reports of a broader inquiry into who was responsible saying late Friday that

officials were following orders issued by "the director -- that is to say me".

Out of a total of 150 people on board, health authorities authorised 17 -- 11 women and six men -- to leave the ship on Saturday. But only 12 disembarked, after several women refused to leave if it meant

being separated from family members still on board, media reported.

Italy's Foreign Ministry praised Albania "for its decision to welcome 20 refugees from the Diciotti, a sign of great solidarity", in a tweet. Albania, which is not an EU member, is the only country so far to offer to

host some of those on board the ship.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on EU member states to "urgently" provide places for those stranded on the ship.

"In the meantime, UNHCR urges Italian authorities to allow the immediate disembarkation of those on board," it said.

Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived since 2013, fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Rome has increasingly barred boats from docking at its ports.

A high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday failed to produce an immediate solution for the Diciotti migrants.

"The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again," Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page. "They want the 20 billion euros ($23 billion) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe," he added.

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to the EU budget -- less than one percent of its gross national income -- while the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the Diciotti after they were rescued on August 15, but he allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat on Wednesday.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini's stance has boosted his far-right League party's approval rating to around 30 percent -- a more than 10 point jump from its showing in March's election.

It is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

According to Salvini's own ministry, migrant arrivals are more than 80 percent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500 arriving up to August 23, compared to 98,000 in 2017. </s> ROME (AP) — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers but making clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc's next multi-year budget.

"Italy must take note that the 'spirit of solidarity is struggling to translate into concrete acts," Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in late June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats.

In his role as head of a nearly three-month-old populist coalition government, Conte said Italy under current conditions "doesn't consider it possible to express adhesion to a proposed budget that underpins a policy so incoherent on the social level."

Earlier in the week, some in the government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn't volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama's resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor "wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I'm proud of it," Salvini tweeted. Many of his supporters blame migrants for crime.

Earlier in the week, the government's rights office for detained persons concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government.

Salvini took credit for convincing bishops to take many of the migrants. The bishops agreed to "open up their doors, heart and wallet," he told the rally.

Fifty others of the 190 people rescued at sea on Aug. 16 by the Italian coast guard were previously allowed off the ship, including all the minors and ailing adults.

A few hours before Conte's announcement, Italian Red Cross ambulances waiting at dockside took away six ill men, suspected of having tuberculosis, pneumonia or other infections, and seven of the 11 women who were still aboard.

Authorities had said the women recounted how they had been raped while in Libya for months, awaiting the opportunity to leave in migrant smugglers' boats.

Four other women chose not to leave the ship because their husbands were blocked aboard.

The standoff had prompted an impassioned appeal at the height of the standoff Saturday by the U.N. refugee agency's chief, who asked Italy to let the migrants disembark and urged EU countries to take responsibility for the asylum-seekers.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it's time to end a "race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea." He urged European countries "to do the right thing and offer places of asylum for people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need."

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed appreciation for Albania's "sign of great solidarity and friendship," his ministry said.

Albania, which isn't in the European Union, saw thousands of its citizens flee to Italy across the Adriatic Sea aboard dramatically overcrowded rickety ferries and fishing boats in hopes of a better life in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Sicily-based prosecutors took their investigation of the migrant standoff to Rome. Prosecutor Patronaggio left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry officials at the Italian capital's prosecutors' office, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Prosecutors would have to seek permission from a special panel to question Salvini. As a lawmaker, Salvini also holds immunity from prosecution that could only be lifted by fellow lawmakers.

Italian Red Cross official Stefano Principato in Catania told reporters that Italy's health minister had ordered an inspection of sanitary conditions for the migrants, who have been sleeping on the ship's deck and coping with a baking sun and limited toilet facilities.

Doctors have said many of the migrants on the ship have scabies but "more than a health emergency, it would be better to speak of a psychological emergency," Principato said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio </s> ROME (AFP) - Prosecutors in Sicily on Saturday (Aug 25) opened an inquiry into Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for "illegal confinement, illegal arrest and abuse of power", reports said, over his refusal to allow over 100 rescued migrants off a coastguard ship.

At the same time, Salivini suggested that an end to the drama could be in sight telling a political meeting "the migrants on board the Diciotti ship will disembark in the coming hours", adding that they would be taken in by the Italian church "by bishops who are opening their doors, their hearts and their wallets".

Authorities earlier allowed a dozen migrants to leave the Diciotti where they have been stranded for days, as it also hailed Albania for offering to accept some of those on board.

Rome has blocked most of the migrants from stepping off the boat which docked at the port of Catania in Sicily last Monday night, leaving them trapped as Italy pushes other EU nations to take them in.

Their fate has sparked a fresh immigration row between Italy's populist government and the EU, with Rome on Friday threatening to pull some of its funding for the bloc as a "compensatory measure" if it refuses to help.

Prosecutors in Sicily said that they were now investigating Salvini in connection with the migrants' plight.

The minister earlier brushed aside reports of a broader inquiry into who was responsible saying late Friday that officials were following orders issued by "the director - that is to say me".

Out of a total of 150 people on board, health authorities authorised 17 - 11 women and six men - to leave the ship on Saturday.

But only 12 disembarked, after several women refused to leave if it meant being separated from family members still on board, media reported.

Italy's Foreign Ministry praised Albania "for its decision to welcome 20 refugees from the Diciotti, a sign of great solidarity", in a tweet.

Albania, which is not an EU member, is the only country so far to offer to host some of those on board the ship.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on EU member states to "urgently" provide places for those stranded on the ship.

"In the meantime, UNHCR urges Italian authorities to allow the immediate disembarkation of those on board," it said.

Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived since 2013, fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Rome has increasingly barred boats from docking at its ports.

A high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday failed to produce an immediate solution for the Diciotti migrants.

"The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again," Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page.

"They want the 20 billion euros (S$31.7 billion) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe," he added.

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to the EU budget - less than 1 per cent of its gross national income - while the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the Diciotti after they were rescued on Aug 15, but he allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat on Wednesday.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini's stance has boosted his far-right League party's approval rating to around 30 per cent - a more than 10 point jump from its showing in March's election.

It is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

According to Salvini's own ministry, migrant arrivals are more than 80 per cent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500 arriving up to Aug 23, compared to 98,000 in 2017. </s> ROME — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers.

But Conte made clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc’s next multiyear budget.

“Italy must take note that the ‘spirit of solidarity’ is struggling to translate into concrete acts,” Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers.

Last week, some in the new populist coalition government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn’t volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama’s resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor “wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I’m proud of it,” Salvini tweeted.

Frances D’Emilio is an Associated Press writer. </s> INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) — The Latest on Europe’s migrant crisis (all times local):

An Italian coast guard ship has docked in Sicily but is still awaiting permission to disembark its 67 migrants, after two of them were accused of threatening their rescuers if they were taken back to Libya.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday he won’t let the migrants off until there is clarity over what happened after an Italian commercial tugboat rescued them over the weekend. Italy’s transport minister said some migrants made death threats against the crew. The threats prompted the Italian coast guard to board the migrants and bring them to Trapani.

Salvini said he wanted to know if the crew “exaggerated” in reporting the threats.

Speaking in Austria after a meeting of EU interior ministers about migration, Salvini said: “If someone lied, they’ll pay. If there was violence, it will be punished.”

Salvini said he hoped Italy’s hard-line position on migration becomes the European position, for the sake of the bloc’s integrity. He says “if you drastically reduce the departures and arrivals, the problems inside the EU among individual countries will also be reduced.”

France has taken in a group of 78 asylum-seekers, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, after their charity rescue ship was blocked form ports in Italy and Malta.

The French Interior Ministry said the group arrived in France on Thursday from Spain, where the Aquarius rescue ship that saved them was allowed to dock last month.

The ministry said the 78 were identified as in need of protection as refugees and will be housed in regions in southeast and northern France while they go through the asylum process.

The Aquarius, carrying 630 migrants, drew wide attention after Italy and Malta refused the aid ship docking rights. Spain and France eventually agreed to accept the passengers.

France has taken in a much smaller share of migrants in recent years than neighboring Germany or Italy.

An Italian coast guard ship is in the waters off Sicily awaiting permission to disembark its 67 migrants, some of whom are accused of mutiny and threatening their rescuers if they were taken back to Libya.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to identify, jail and prosecute the “criminals” rescued over the weekend by a commercial tugboat off Libya. Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli has said a few of the migrants made death threats against the tug’s crew, apparently fearing they would be returned to Libyan detention centers.

The tug alerted Italian authorities to the threats, and the migrants were transferred to the coast guard ship Diciotti, which remained off the coast of Trapani on Thursday.

On Trapani’s docks were activists protesting Italy’s hard-line position on migrants. Many wore the red T-shirts that have become a symbol of those favoring a broader welcome for migrants, many of whom dress their children in red to make them easier to spot in cases of shipwreck.

The top security officials of Germany, Italy and Austria are touting their hard line on migration issues, saying Europe needs to protect its exterior borders and crack down on human smuggling.

Germany’s Horst Seehofer held talks with his Austrian and Italian counterparts, Herbert Kickl and Matteo Salvini, Thursday morning ahead of a wider meeting of European Union interior ministers.

Kickl says the group wants “to send a clear message to the world, and especially to the traffickers, that it won’t be possible anymore in the future, shouldn’t be possible anymore to step on European soil if you don’t have a right to protection.”

Seehofer says the ministers, all hardliners on migration, are seeking European solutions, but “all three of us know that this is going to be a Herculean task.”

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> The Italian Interior Minister thanked the Albanian Government as the non-European Union country agreed to accept 20 of the 190 migrants who docked in Catania, Sicily, last week.

Speaking at a League party reception in the Italian northern town of Pinzolo, Mr Salvini argued the Albanian Government demonstrated to be "better" than the French one.

Ireland was the only EU member state to have agreed to welcome some of the migrants despite Emmanuel Macron's promises to Italy to share the burden of asylum seekers.

Speaking to League supporters Mr Salvini said: “Do you know where some of the migrants will end up as they disembark in the next few hours?
Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini is placed under investigation for possible illegal detention and kidnapping. He subsequently gives permission for the remaining 134 migrants to disembark. Ireland will take 25 migrants, Albania 20. The Italian church says it will take in the others.