ARD (German public TV, Channel One), had a short piece today on an odd problem in Italy.
There's a ship off the coast of Italy (between it and Malta) with 629 folks on board. The ship? "Aquarius". It's a 'private' rescue ship.
Italy had a change in government in the past month, and they've come up and said 'no'....they won't allow the ship to dock in any Italian harbor and release the 629 folks.
Malta? Basically the same story, although they were more direct and told the rescue ship to transport the people back to Libya.
For months, the smuggler crowd in Libya has been selling seats on craft that are designed to basically float out in the Med, and then some rescue-vessel 'accidentally' will find you and transport you the rest of the way into a regional port. Then you become recognized as EU-sponsored folks.
About a year ago, the Italians got fed up with the rescue-crowd, and made up a number of rules.....which forced the rescue-vessels to accept observers onboard, and it made it more difficult to pretend that you accidentally found people. The general belief by some (whether it's true or not) is that the smugglers are working hand-in-hand with the rescue crowd. It would be awful stupid if that were true.
As for what happens here with the 629 people? Well....I'm guessing most have paid at least a thousand dollars for their seat, and are in a bit of desperation to reach European soil. If this does reach a stage of failure.....it'll be a harsh moment for the smugglers because this route is no longer profitable.
UPDATE: Spain said today around noon....it'd take the 629 folks. My guess is that the rescue crowd will try to 'milk' Spain a bit until the public gets reactionary.
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