Italy allows more migrants off rescue ships, standoff eases

By COLLEEN BARRY and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — The far-right-led Italian government’s weekslong standoff with aid groups running rescue ships partially eased on Tuesday, as officials allowed all remaining migrants on two boats to access port. But a ship with 234 rescued migrants still at sea appealed to France to offer it a safe port after more than two weeks of silence from Italy. Italy was allowing migrants it had previously rejected as “not vulnerable” to disembark the Geo Barents, run by Doctors without Borders, in the Sicilian port of Catania. That comes after all 89 migrants aboard a German-run rescue ship were allowed to disembark on the Italian mainland. Premier Giorgia Meloni defended Italy’s hard-line stance, saying voters that brought her government to power in September “asked us to defend the Italian borders.”