After nine days at sea, the 629 migrants who were on board the Aquarius since last Saturday finally land. They do it at dawn on Sunday morning, at the port of Valencia, Spain. The first group of them, 274 people, entered the Iberian port aboard the Dattilo ship of the Italian Coast Guard, then the Aquarius ship entered, which has 106 people on board, while lastly the Orione ship of the Italian Navy entered with additional 249 migrants. Two large Red Cross tents have been set up at pier 1 in the port of Valencia where the first health screening for migrants will be carried out: those in precarious health conditions, pregnant women and children, will be taken to hospital while all the others will be directed to the various reception centers set up by the Valencian Generalitat throughout the region. The Spanish authorities have in fact prepared a device for 2.300 people. This was explained by the deputy director for emergencies of the Generalitat Valenciana, Jorge Suarez: "Taking into account how long the crossing took, they suffered a lot and report a state of fatigue," said Suarez.
As for the subsequent destination of the migrants, the Spanish government has announced that France will welcome some migrants from the Aquarius ship, after examining their situation in Spain. The Spanish premier, Pedro Sanchez, has sent a telegram of thanks to the French president, Emmanuel Macron. This is "the framework of cooperation" with which Europe must respond "in a spirit of European solidarity with the real content," said Sanchez. The rescue services of Madrid said that in the last two days they have assisted 933 people and recovered four deceased from dozens of hulls that departed from the African coast in the Mediterranean.
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An odyssey that lasted nine days was thus resolved, complete with political confrontation and a diplomatic crisis – which was later mended – between various European countries that intervened on the issue, in particular Italy, Malta and France. Even if the question and answer between Salvini and the NGO Lifetime continued yesterday: the Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini continues to raise the bar against the NGO boats. Which from now on, he reiterates on Facebook, "they will have to look for other (non-Italian) ports to go to", just like Aquarius because, explains the Northern League leader, "Italy no longer wants to be an accomplice in the clandestine immigration business". "Good day friends", thus opens the post of the deputy prime minister. “While the NGO vessel Aquarius sails towards Spain (arrival expected tomorrow morning) two other Dutch-flagged NGO vessels (Lifeline and Seefuchs) have arrived off the coast of Libya, awaiting their cargo of abandoned human beings by smugglers".
But the Foreign Minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, intervenes on the migrant emergency in quite different tones, who, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, relaunches the idea proposed again yesterday on FIRSTonline by one of his predecessors at the Farnesina, Franco Frattini, namely "Opening European hotspots in transit countries". The Foreign Minister, after dismissing Salvini's suggestions for the Italy-Germany-Austria axis and convergences with the Visegrad Eurosceptic group, also proposes taxing Internet multinationals to finance a robust investment plan in Africa.
