Migrant boat stopped from landing in Italy's Sicily
A humanitarian group says authorities in Italy have stopped a rescue boat carrying hundreds of migrants from landing in the island of Sicily, as the European country is grappling with a migrant crisis.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that the boat with some 700 migrants on board was turned away despite long discussions with Italian authorities.
The officials cited a "lack of capacity in the Italian (migrant) reception system," as the reason behind not accepting the boat that is operated by medical charity, the group said a statement.
The boat afterwards headed for the port of Reggio Calabria in the southern tip of Italy as it hoped to land there on Saturday.
Pointing to the “very concrete consequences” of the lack of preparation in the Italian system, president of MSF's Italian operation, Loris De Filippi, urged Italian Ministry of Interior to “authorize boats to disembark at the port in Sicily that is closest to them in order to allow them to return to the search and rescue zone as soon as possible in order save other boats.”
The development comes as Italy is trying to host over 80,000 migrants who have traveled the Mediterranean to escape war, persecution or poverty in the Middle East and Africa. This is while some Italians are against the decision to settle the migrants in the country.
Also on Friday, residents in the northern Italian village of Quito, where officials want to accommodate over 100 migrants in empty apartments, held anti-migrant protests in a bid to stop authorities from housing migrants.
The protesters removed camp beds, mattresses and televisions and torched them outside and erected tents there.
Around a hundred locals, who included members of an extreme-right group, staged a similar demonstration in Casale San Nicola, a chic suburb north of the capital Rome against the arrival of some 20 migrants on the same day. Clashes were reported between the demonstrators and police.
According to the International Organization for Migration, some 150,000 migrants and refugees have so far this year crossed the Mediterranean to enter Europe, while more than 1,900 of them have been killed.
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