SYRACUSE – A vessel owned by the non-profit organisation SeaWatch has been given permission to enter Italian waters on Friday after unfavourable weather conditions became a threat to the safety of the 47 migrants on board.

 The boat, SeaWatch 3, neared the port of Syracuse in Sicily to avoid the storms that hit the Mediterranean over the course of the week.

 “Syracuse is ready to welcome the 47 migrants,” the city’s mayor Francesco Italia said on Friday, despite Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insisting that “no-one will disembark in Italy.”

 Italia was also heavily critical of Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, saying that, when facing requests for assistance from such vessels, “one cannot respond, as minister Di Maio did, by directing the bow towards Marseilles.”

 Both Di Maio and Salvini have attempted to point the finger at France’s policies in Africa as the reason for the high numbers of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean (http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/7638).

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