General

A stranded migrant rescue boat reveals the depths of the EU’s crisis

Yasmeen
Serhan, The Atlantic, Jun 13, 2018

Italy’s
refusal to allow more than 600 migrants to disembark signals a bigger problem.
Migrants
are pictured on the deck of the MV Aquarius in the central Mediterranean Sea
on June 12, 2018. Reuters

German
Chancellor Angela Merkel warned last
week
of the threat facing the European Union if it fails to reach a
common asylum policy. Her warning could not have been more prescient: One week
later, a diplomatic crisis has broken out between France and Italy over what
should be done about a rescue boat carrying more than 600 migrants off the
Italian coast. And the crisis threatens to get worse.

It began
over the weekend when Matteo Salvini, the interior minister of Italy’s new
populist and right-wing government and the leader of the anti-immigration
League party, vowed Sunday to block the MS Aquarius, a vessel carrying 629
migrants rescued from the sea off the coast of Libya, from docking at Italian
ports. The boat is run by two NGOs, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS
Méditerranée. Salvini, who hinted Italy would take this approach with future
NGO ships, suggested the boat dock in Malta instead. Malta’s government
similarly refused to let the vessel disembark at its port.
Thankfully
for the Aquarius, whose passengers include 123
unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women
, the diplomatic
standoff didn’t last long. On Monday, the Spanish government stepped in,
announcing that it would grant the vessel safe harbor at its port in Valencia.
Salvini proclaimed Spain’s decision a “victory
for his government’s hardline immigration polices. MSF, however, was less
celebratory. Though it welcomed the Spanish government’s “gesture of
humanity
” towards the hundreds of stranded migrants onboard, it
noted that the new destination would require the vessel to travel an additional
four days at sea amid deteriorating weather conditions.  
Perhaps
the person least impressed by the outcome was France’s Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting Tuesday, the French president blasted the Italian
government’s “cynical and irresponsible” decision to block the boat from its
ports. “If French coasts were a boat’s nearest shores, it would be able to
dock,” Macron said,
according to a government spokesperson.
But it is
Italy, not France, whose ports have served as a main entry point to Europe for
migrants crossing the Mediterranean—a retort the Italian government was quick
to issue. Salvini said France has not shouldered its fair share of the burden
when it comes to accepting migrants, and demanded an official apology. “We have
nothing to learn about generosity, volunteerism, welcoming, and solidarity from
anyone,” he said
in a speech Wednesday to Italy’s parliament.
The
diplomatic row escalated even further Wednesday when Italy summoned
France’s ambassador to Rome over Macron’s criticisms, and cancelled a day-of
meeting scheduled to take place between Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria
and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire. Salvini warned
that Friday’s planned meeting between Macron and Italian Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte could also be cancelled.
That
Italy chose to turn away these rescued migrants falls almost perfectly in line
with its new government’s stated goals. As my colleague Rachel Donadio pointed out
last week
, its new government came to power in large part over the
country’s concerns about immigration and the economy. The country has struggled
to contend with the influx of hundreds of
thousands of migrants
arriving by boat in recent years. Now, the
Italian government says, enough is enough.  
Though
the situation with the Aquarius has been solved for now, the conflict it has
exposed within the EU has not. “These disputes run much deeper than the
question of how to resolve the refugee crisis,” Matthew Goodwin, a visiting
fellow at the London-based Chatham House and author of the forthcoming National
Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy, told me. “They also reflect
arguably irreconcilable differences in the values that EU member states hold. …
There is an emerging alliance in Europe that is far more conservative in nature
and more willing to defend the nation state and push back against their liberal
rivals.”
It’s
worth noting that Italy hasn’t barred all rescue vessels from accessing its
ports. An Italian coast guard vessel carrying 937 rescued migrants was allowed
to dock in Sicily on Wednesday, suggesting the Italian government’s new policy
may impact vessels belonging to foreign NGOs exclusively. A rescue vessel
called Sea-Watch 3, run by a German NGO, found itself blocked by Italian
authorities a few days ago. “Little changes if the boat is called Aquarius or Sea-Watch
3,” Salvini said.
“We want to put an end to this traffic in human beings. And so, as we have
raised the problem for the Aquarius, we’ll do it for all the other boats.”
Until the
EU can resolve how to share responsibility for migrants traveling to the bloc,
Goodwin said the likelihood of future Aquariuses can’t be dismissed. “Public
concerns over identity, borders, and security have become entwined with how
people think about the EU,” he said. “This is why it is absolutely crucial for
the EU, if it is to survive, to come up with coherent and effective policies in
these areas—otherwise it risks a broader backlash.”