Immigration security

Scores of refugees stranded at sea as Italy bars rescue ships

Forty-nine rescued refugees and migrants, including 12 minors, remained stranded at sea on Tuesday on board a nonprofit rescue ship as Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini barred them from disembarking in Italy.

Rescuers from the Italian aid group Mediterranea Saving Humans pulled the migrants off a sinking rubber dinghy near Libya on Monday and brought them close to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

They were refused permission to disembark on the island with Salvini tweeting Monday evening: "Our ports were and remain CLOSED."

On Tuesday morning, Salvini tweeted again saying that Italy will not give in to "blackmail" by social groups that are "accomplices to human traffickers."

The migrants "can be cured, fed, clothed, given all kinds of comfort goods, but as far as I'm concerned, with my permission, they won't set foot in Italy," Salvini told SkyTG24 news channel on Tuesday.

His ministry issued a directive on Monday saying ships rescuing people in areas of the Mediterranean that are not Italian and that do not coordinate with the command centre in Rome have no right to use Italy as a port of safety.