Italy says six EU states will take in migrants on Open Arms ship

Italy says six EU states will take in migrants on Open Arms ship
Giuseppe Conte

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday that six EU countries had agreed to take in some 150 migrants who have been blocked from docking in Italy, resolving the latest standoff over immigration to Europe across the Mediterranean.

The migrants have been stranded on the Spanish charity ship Open Arms since it picked them up off Libya in early August, and Rome’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refused to allow them to disembark.

Conte said in an open letter to Salvini that the migrants would be shared out among France, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain and Luxembourg.