Rescue boat with more than 300 migrants docks in Spain

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain

A boat shunned by Italy carrying more than 300 migrants rescued from off the coast of Libya has docked at a southern Spanish port.

The Spanish government said the 311 migrants who arrived Friday morning will receive medical attention and pass through the habitual identification process.

Malta and Italy had previously denied the ship entry, and the boat’s calls to France, Tunisia, and Libya went unanswered.

“Italian ports are closed. For the human traffickers and those who help them, the party is over,” tweeted Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday.

The migrants crossing from Africa to Europe were rescued by Spanish NGO Open Arms, which has been both criticized as a group that facilitates illegal migration by rescuing those stranded at sea and praised for saving thousands of lives.

Earlier this month at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s Socialist premier, said Spain has assumed a leadership role on migration. So far this year, the number of migrant arrivals to Spain has reached more than 63,700 – more than double that of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The IOM estimates that more than 2,200 migrants have died or gone missing trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea this year.