France accepts refugee ship amid raging row with Italy

A rescue ship carrying 230 refugees docked at the French port of Toulon on Friday amid escalating tensions between France and Italy over which country is responsible for them.

This came a day after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin emphasized that the refugees were Italy's responsibility under the European Union regulation, describing the French acceptance of the asylum seekers as an "exceptional" measure.

Darmanin further called Italy's refusal to accept the refugees "incomprehensible," insisting that there would be "severe consequences" for relations with Italy, which he said had "lacked humanity."

The refugees, more than 50 of whom are children, were transferred to an international waiting zone pending the processing of requests for asylum.

Nearly 600 police were deployed for the ship's arrival, with the Red Cross in charge of humanitarian aid, local news outlets reported.

France had never before allowed a rescue vessel carrying asylum seekers from the Mediterranean to land on its coast, but did so this time since Italy had refused access.

In retaliation for Rome’s refusal to accept the rescue ship, Paris has also suspended a plan to take 3,500 refugees currently in Italy as part of a European burden-sharing accord, calling on Germany and other EU nations to do the same.

The Ocean Viking ship -- operated by a French NGO -- had picked up the refugees at sea near the Libyan coast before spending weeks seeking a port to accept them.

The ship had initially sought access to Italy's coast, which is closest to where the asylum seekers were picked up, insisting that health and sanitary conditions onboard were rapidly deteriorating.

Italy refused to allow access, however, saying that other European nations needed to shoulder more of the burden for taking in the thousands of refugees trying to reach Europe from North Africa every year.

Responding to France’s allegations on Friday, Italy’s new far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned in a press briefing what she referred to as an "aggressive reaction" by the French government, describing it as "incomprehensible and unjustified."

According to local press reports, Meloni appears to be prepared to push the dispute to the top of the European agenda.

Meanwhile, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi also stated on Thursday the request had been for "234 migrants, when Italy has taken in 90,000 just this year."

Nine European nations have committed to hosting two-thirds of the refugees, Darmanin pointed out on Thursday, with the remaining third staying in France.

Following Friday’s disembarkation in Toulon, French President Emmanuel Macron underlined that the debate over migration in France could not be resolved "if we do not have a real European organization that works".

He further pointed to the importance of understanding "how to resolve the problems of inequality with the African continent and the other shores of the Mediterranean."

This is while Xavier Lauth, the operations director of SOS Mediterranee -- the NGO in charge of the Operation Viking -- said the ship would resume rescue missions "because we don't accept that this sea becomes a cemetery."

But the organization also said that refugee rescue ships should not have to make the long journey to France in future rescues.

"It is wrong that people disembark at such a great distance from the rescue locations," SOS Mediterranee president Francois Thomas told reporters.

So far this year, 164 asylum seekers have been moved from Italy to other member nations of the EU that volunteered to accept them.

That is a fraction of the more than 88,000 that have reached its shores so far this year, of which 14 percent arrived after being rescued by NGO vessels, according to the Italian authorities.

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