ROME, Aug 27 (NNN-ANSA) — Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday barred the German-flagged migrant rescue ship Eleonore from entering Italian waters with over 100 migrants it picked up off Libya on Monday.
Anti-migrant Euroskeptic League party leader Salvini has closed Italy’s ports to NGO-run migrant rescue ships and there have been several standoffs which have ended with the European Union agreeing to take the migrants, reported Italian news agency ANSA.
The Eleonore is run by German NGO Lifeline. Salvini signed a decree prohibiting the entry, transit and stopping of the Eleonore in Italian waters.
The measure has already been sent to the Italian defence and transport ministers.
The ship is carrying 101 migrants it rescued from a sinking dinghy off Libya.
–NNN-ANSA
