Message to Italy: Allow Minors to Land
From Borneo Bulletin:
Save the Children and other aid agencies on Saturday appealed to Italy to allow minors rescued in the Mediterranean to land, amid the latest diplomatic row over the fate of migrants saved at sea.
“These young people have already suffered enough violence and abuse during their journey to Italy and are particularly vulnerable,” Raffaela Milano, the Director of the Italian arm of Save the Children, said in a statement.
She called for an “immediate” response to the call by Catania prosecutors to allow the minors on board the Dutch-flagged rescue ship Sea Watch 3, currently sheltering from bad weather off Sicily, to be disembarked.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), its children’s agency (UNICEF) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) also called for an “urgent” solution for the minors and other migrants, saying the situation was “critical”.
But far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini repeated his refusal to take in the migrants, and claimed the 13 unaccompanied minors were nearly 18 years old and not children.
“I will not change my mind. Italy’s ports are closed and will remain closed to people traffickers and their accomplices,” he said.
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