Spain allows charity boat turned away by Italy to dock

Proactiva Open Arms went back on the water after the problems it had with Italian port authorities and, thanks to urgent repair work funded by Manchester City manager and ex-Barça trainer Pep Guardiola, has been able to go out and save more lives.

Yesterday (Saturday), another 59 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean around 33 miles off the coast of Libya, but Italy once again refused to let the craft into any of its ports now that the country's new far-right government has taken an anti-refugee stance.

Proactiva Open Arms sought permission from the Spanish coastguard to take the migrants to a home port instead.

The coastguard applied to the socialist-led central government, which has only been in power for a month, and consent was given instantly.

“It's a normal enough case. It's a boat owned by a Spanish charity which has been used to rescue people in need in the sea and has requested authorisation to dock in a port in Spain,” say government sources.

Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau – who was making headlines for years before winning the 2015 elections as leader of a national anti-eviction and anti-repossession campaign group – has championed the government and its president, Pedro Sánchez.

“At last! Thanks to the government and Pedro Sánchez, the Open Arms boat and its 60 passengers rescued from death have finally been given permission to come to Barcelona,” Sra Colau tweeted.

The migrants' health is said to be 'very delicate' at the moment, since after failing to dock in Italy and being rejected by Malta, the crew faced a four-day trek across the open seas to reach Spain.

A dispute between Italy and Malta was what led to Proactiva Open Arms' being forced to ask Spain for help.

Italian president Matteo Salvini says the 'Spanish boat with a Spanish flag' jumped the gun and pipped a Libyan coastguard patrol craft at the post to get to the migrants, that the rescue was in Libyan waters and the nearest port was in Malta.

“Forget about trying to get into an Italian port,” Salvini said.

“We need to stop the human-trafficking mafia: if fewer people try to travel across the Mediterranean, fewer people will die in it.”

Salvini has not realised that the vast majority of migrants are leaving behind such extreme conditions of either poverty, political repression, persecution or armed conflict, or a combination of several of these, that they are willing to risk their lives in order to escape and normally find ways of doing so with or without the mafia.

Maltese interior minister Michael Farrugia said the Proactiva Open Arms rescue was nearer to the Italian island of Lampedusa than anywhere else, and certainly nearer than Malta.

He criticised Salvini and called for him to 'stop giving false information and involving Malta without good reason'.

Socialist MEP Javier López, who is on board Proactiva Open Arms' craft, says there are four children among the 59, two of whom are unaccompanied.

The migrants are said to be of up to 14 nationalities, mostly of sub-Saharan African or Arab origin.