The rescue off Libya by a private
Italian vessel of around 60 asylum seekers, who were
subsequently transferred to an Italian Coast Guard ship, has
irked Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini.
The interior ministry's position is that intervention of the
Vos Thalassa, a tug linked to an oil rig, anticipated that of
the Libyan coast guard, sources said.
Salvini took up the matter with Premier Giuseppe Conte,
Labour and Industry Minister and Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio
and Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, sources said.
"The Italian Coast Guard cannot replace the Libyan one, above
all, if the African colleagues have moved into action," Salvini
said, according to the sources.
League leader Salvini has spearheaded the hardline stance on
migrants of the new coalition government that has seen NGO-run
migrant rescue ships denied access to Italian ports.
Toninelli, whose ministry is in charge of Italy's ports and
the Coast Guard, said via Twitter the Italian Coast Guard
intervened because the migrants were "endangering the lives of
the crew" of the Vos Thalassa.
He added that a investigation had been luanched so that the
migrants who caused the trouble could be punished.
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