Ships should go to nearest port- Macron (2)

(ANSA) - Paris, June 12 - French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to Spain's courage in the case of the Aquarius and said the migrant-rescue ships should always go to the nearest port, French government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux said after a cabinet meeting in Paris.
    Griveaux said that Macron took time to "recall maritime law", which he said states that it is "always the nearest coast that assumes the responsibility to receive" asylum seekers.
    "If a ship had France as its nearest coast, it could dock, this is international law," he said.