Italy demanded on Saturday that the Netherlands recall two NGO-operated migrant transport ships flying the Dutch flag, after Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini warned that they would not be allowed to dock in Italian ports.
The ships are currently sitting off the coast of Libya.
“They should know that Italy no longer wants to be an accomplice in the business of illegal immigration and therefore they will have to aim for other, non-Italian, ports,” Salvini said in a Friday post on Facebook.
The blocked NGO ships come on the heels of Italy’s refusal to take in a boat full of 629 shipwrecked migrants picked up off the coast of Libya – a move ushered in by the Italian government’s new populist coalition headed by Salvini.
“We are finished being doormats,” tweeted Salvini on Sunday. ...
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