The French government has agreed that the more than 200 migrants and refugees transferred to the port of Toulon by the ship ‘Ocean Viking’ will be divided among at least twelve countries, although France and Germany will take the lion’s share, with one third of the total each.
«At this hour, eleven European countries have already committed to take charge of 175 of the 234 passengers of the ‘Ocean Viking’,» announced on Twitter the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who thanked on Twitter the «support» given to France by its «partners». «European solidarity is a success,» he has celebrated.
The French Interior Ministry has clarified that, in addition to France and Germany, Malta, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland, Norway and Finland have joined the agreement on the ‘Ocean Viking’, according to Franceinfo.
The same solidarity that Darmanin celebrates is what the Italian government has allegedly missed in order to continue authorizing migrant landings in its own ports, in a year in which it has already recorded some 90,000 arrivals, as emphasized this Friday by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
France, in fact, has toughened its messages against Italy and, as a first practical measure, has suspended a pact to take in about 3,500 migrants. For Meloni, this is an «aggressive», «incomprehensible» and «unjustified» reaction, since «it is not written» in any agreement «that Italy has to be the only port of disembarkation».
