Italy threaten not to return to Libya 177 migrants at the centre of a diplomatic stand-off if the European Union takes action to instead redistribute them across the bloc, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Monday.
The migrants are aboard an Italian coastguard vessel, the Diciotti, which rescued them on Thursday in Maltese search and rescue waters.
Since then, Malta and Italy have argued over whose responsibility it was to take in the migrants.
The ship “can also dock in Italy, as long as the 177 migrants are shared, in a spirit of European solidarity,” Salvini told RAI state television, rowing back on a Sunday statement threatening to send the migrants back to Libya.
The European Union and the UN have repeatedly warned that returning sea migrants to Libya – where they risk of abuse and torture – would be illegal.
The European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy over the issue in 2012.
Before Salvini’s comments, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had “officially and formally” asked the European Commission to coordinate a European redistribution of the 177 migrants on the Diciotti.
