ROME (Reuters) - Naples is ready to defy Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and let in a charity-run ship carrying 32 migrants that is blocked in the stormy Mediterranean, the city mayor said on Thursday.

His offer adds to a growing challenge from opposition politicians to Salvini’s far-right League, which has vowed to bar migrants and make life difficult for those already here.

Both Italy and Malta are refusing to let the Sea-Watch 3, a ship operated by a German non-governmental organization (NGO), dock and set down the migrants who were rescued off Libya on Dec. 22.

Both countries say they have taken in too many migrants and accuse NGO rescue ships of acting as a taxi service for would-be refugees.

Naples’ center-left mayor Luigi de Magistris said Salvini was playing politics with peoples’ lives.

“To leave people and children in the middle of cold and stormy seas is a crime — not simply indecent, immoral and appalling,” de Magistris told Radio Crc.

“I hope that this boat approaches the port of Naples because, unlike what the government says, we will launch a rescue operation and we will let it enter the port,” he said. “I will be the first to lead the rescue.”

Naples is hundreds of miles to the north of the Sea-Watch 3 and there was no immediate response from the boat to the offer.

Malta overnight allowed the boat into its waters to sail closer to land where the seas are less choppy, but is refusing to let it dock.

Several local politicians from opposition parties have defied Salvini’s anti-migrant policies.

On Wednesday, the mayor of the Sicilian capital Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, said he would join other cities in ignoring a new security law because it abolishes asylum protection for many migrants.

Salvini on Thursday threatened mayors with legal action.

“Anyone who helps clandestine migrants hates Italians. They will answer for their actions before the law and the history books. I will not back down,” Salvini tweeted.

FILE PHOTO: A ferry boat sails in the port of Naples, Italy July 25, 2018. Picture taken July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo

“Italy’s ports are closed. We have taken in too many fake refugees. We have enriched too many people-smugglers. Left-wing mayors should think of the difficulties of their own citizens and not clandestine migrants.”

On taking office last year, Salvini barred NGO boats and moved to help Libya prevent people leaving its shores.

Some 12,977 migrants entered Italy in 2018 via boats from Libya, down 87.9 percent on 2017 and 92.85 percent on 2016, according to government data.</s>The Netherlands announced Wednesday it was prepared to welcome some of the 32 migrants waiting to disembark from a Dutch-flagged vessel in the Mediterranean, if other countries did the same.

“The Netherlands has indicated a readiness to possibly take in a proportional number of migrants who are on board Sea-Watch 3, on condition that other European countries do the same,” said security and justice ministry spokesman Lennart Wegewijs.

The Dutch had at first joined Italy, Malta and Spain in refusing to accept the migrants who were rescued on December 22 by Sea-Watch 3, which is operated by a German charity.

“Negotiations coordinated by the European Commission are underway between the different European countries,” Wegewijs told AFP. “We are seeking a solution to this situation.”

The 32 migrants who were plucked from a makeshift boat in international waters, include three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

In Berlin, a government spokesman said Saturday that Germany would only accept some of the 32 if other European countries also agreed to do so.

Spanish coastguards reported Wednesday they had rescued 325 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean over the first two days of the new year.

The news comes just days after a charity rescue vessel carrying 311 mainly African migrants plucked off the coast of Libya docked in Spain, ending a traumatic journey which saw them spend Christmas at sea.

With Italian ports closed to migrants by the Rome government since June, Spain has become a leading destination.

A spokeswoman for Spain’s coastguards told AFP they had rescued 111 migrants on Tuesday.

She added 214 more were saved on Wednesday, and coastguards were searching for another boat in distress.

More than 1,300 migrants died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.</s>The Netherlands has announced it was prepared to welcome some of the 32 refugees and migrants waiting to disembark from a Dutch-flagged vessel in the Mediterranean, if other countries did the same.

"The Netherlands has indicated a readiness to possibly take in a proportional number of migrants who are on board Sea-Watch 3, on condition that other European countries do the same," said Lennart Wegewijs, the security and justice ministry spokesman, on Wednesday.

The Dutch had at first joined Italy, Malta and Spain in refusing to accept the refugees and migrants who were rescued on December 22 by Sea-Watch 3, which is operated by a German charity and have been stranded off Malta.

Also on Wednesday, Malta's navy announced that it will allow two German NGO ships with refugees on board, including the Sea-Watch 3, to "take shelter" in Maltese waters due to the deteriorating conditions on board.

The 32 refugees on the Sea-Watch 3 who were plucked from a makeshift boat in international waters, include three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

The Sea-Eye, the second ship, has also been stranded in the Mediterranean with 17 refugees on board.

A German government spokesman said on Saturday that Germany would only accept some of the refugees if other European countries also agreed to do so.

The Sea-Watch NGO tweeted on Wednesday that a storm at sea is now returning, and the ship's passengers and crew need a safe harbour.

The storm has forced the ship's crew to pack the migrants and refugees together in a small area below the deck.

Separately, Spanish coastguards reported on Wednesday they had rescued 401 refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean over the first two days of the New Year.

The news comes just days after a charity rescue vessel carrying 311 mainly African refugees plucked off the coast of Libya docked in Spain, ending a traumatic journey which saw them spend Christmas at sea.

With Italian ports closed to refugees by the government in Rome since June, Spain has become a leading destination.

More than 1,300 refugees and migrants died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.</s>The Netherlands announced Wednesday it was prepared to welcome some of the 32 migrants waiting to disembark from a Dutch-flagged vessel in the Mediterranean, if other countries did the same.

"The Netherlands has indicated a readiness to possibly take in a proportional number of migrants who are on board Sea-Watch 3, on condition that other European countries do the same," said security and justice ministry spokesman Lennart Wegewijs.

And late Wednesday, Malta's navy announced that authorities would allow two German NGO ships — the Sea-Watch 3 and Sea-Eye — carrying migrants to "take shelter" in Maltese waters due to the deteriorating conditions on board.

The Dutch had at first joined Italy, Malta and Spain in refusing to accept the migrants who were rescued on December 22 by Sea-Watch 3, which is operated by a German charity.

The 32 migrants on the Sea-Watch 3 who were plucked from a makeshift boat in international waters, include three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

The Sea-Eye has been stranded in the Mediterranean with 17 migrants on board.

In Berlin, a government spokesman said Saturday that Germany would only accept some of the migrants if other European countries also agreed to do so.

Meanwhile Spanish coast guards reported Wednesday they had rescued 401 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean over the first two days of the new year.

The news comes just days after a charity rescue vessel carrying 311 mainly African migrants plucked off the coast of Libya docked in Spain, ending a traumatic journey which saw them spend Christmas at sea.

With Italian ports closed to migrants by the Rome government since June, Spain has become a leading destination.

A spokeswoman for Spain's coastguards told AFP they had rescued 111 migrants on Tuesday. She added 290 more were saved on Wednesday, and coastguards were searching for another boat in distress.

More than 1,300 migrants died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.</s>German migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 sent a desperate plea on Wednesday for a harbor to dock in. Conditions aboard the ship have worsened after 12 days at sea and bad weather conditions on the Mediterranean, Sea-Watch said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The Berlin-based NGO vessel rescued 32 migrants on December 22, including four women, three children and four unaccompanied minors, and has not been allowed to reach ports in Malta or Italy.

Their extended stay on Mediterranean waters is slowly depleting the ship's resources and endangering everyone on board, Sea-Watch said.

The crew has 'reached their limit'

Due to a storm, the ship's crew retreated into cramped lower-deck quarters with all 32 migrants for safety. Coupled with inadequate food nutrition and dwindling water supplies, the migrants and several crew members have succumbed to severe seasickness.

"For a malnourished, weakened person, the resulting dehydration may be life-threatening, especially when in conjuncture with hypothermia," the crew wrote. In particular, the three children on board, ages 1, 6 and 7 years old, were at the most risk, Sea-Watch said.

Some of the migrants have also suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of being packed into a small space inside the ship. The resulting group dynamic of "many unbalanced people in close proximity to each other" has had an effect on their mental state, the crew wrote.

"We do not have the capacity or the resources to sustain this situation for much longer," Sea-Watch 3's medical team wrote in its "urgent request" letter, adding that the crew had reached their limit, having been on board the vessel for three weeks.

The Sea-Watch has not yet been granted access to a port, but the crew said Malta had permitted them to approach their coast to shelter from the storm. The Maltese government also allowed another distressed German NGO vessel, the Sea-Eye, access to its waters.

In a tweet, Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia provided a map of the area off the coast of Libya where both NGO boats had carried out their rescues. "Malta was neither the appropriate nor the competent search and rescue authority," he said.

The Netherlands said on Wednesday that it was prepared to take in some of the 32 migrants.

But the offer was only "on condition that other European countries do the same," security and justice ministry spokesman Lennart Wegewijs said. "Negotiations coordinated by the European Commission are underway between the different European countries," Wegewijs told AFP news agency.

The ordeal of Sea-Watch 3 comes just days after a charity rescue vessel carrying 311 mainly migrants off the coast of Libya had been allowed to dock in Spain.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 1,300 migrants have died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean last year.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>The latest standoff involves 32 migrants who were rescued at sea on December 22 but have not yet been given permission to land anywhere.

"It's now been 14 days left alone at sea. A new record of shame," the Mediterranea collective of aid groups and associations said on Twitter today, as it launched a mission to deliver aid to those stranded in stormy weather off the coast of Malta.

Three children, aged one, six and seven, "are vomiting continuously, and are at risk of hypothermia and dehydration," said Alessandro Metz of Mediterranea, an initiative which aims to protect migrant rights at sea.

"EU ministers continue to bargain over 32 human beings. We might look miserable, but they are pathetic," German charity Sea Watch said.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF Sea) said there was "no justification for this degrading treatment".

The Sea-Watch 3, a Dutch-flagged vessel which pulled the migrants to safety nearly two weeks ago, was on Wednesday given permission by Malta to shelter off its coast from the fierce winds -- but not to land.

It is the latest of a string of incidents involving people rescued at sea but left stranded in the Mediterranean that has thrown a harsh spotlight on the ongoing deadlock within the European Union over sharing responsibility for migrants.

Migrants have frequently been left in limbo aboard ships that rescued them since Italy's populist anti-immigration government began turning them away last summer.

A help party including fresh crew members and German members of parliament sailed out to the vessel on Friday with supplies, including fresh water, for the people on board.

Among them are three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

As the help party arrived, "one of the migrants threw himself into thewater in an attempt to swim to Malta", said photographer Federico Scoppa, onboard.

"After a few meters, he gave up because of the cold and the current, and was dragged back to the ship using a lifebuoy," Scoppa told AFP.

The German NGO Sea-Eye also has a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 17 migrants on board.

Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands initially refused to take them in, although Germany and the Netherlands later said they would take some of them - on the condition that other nations did the same.

Several German and Italian cities have since offered to host them, with the mayor of Naples defying Italy's hardline interior minister by saying he would lead the operation to disembark them himself if they approached the coast.

In a joint statement with Mediterranea, it said Friday's aid mission aimed to "put pressure on Berlin, which has yet to give a positive answer to the dozens of German cities willing to take in those rescued".

It also urged "European countries, beginning with Italy and Malta, to offer a safe port, as required under international law."

Since coming to power more than six months ago, the Italian government has been demanding greater solidarity from reluctant fellow EU states.

But EU members have failed to agree on a permanent mechanism to relocate migrants who reach Europe's shores, even though arrivals have dropped sharply since a peak more than three years ago.

Some 113,482 migrants crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe last year, according to the UN refugee agency, which said 2,262 people lost their lives or went missing making the perilous journey.

READ ALSO: Salvini furious as Italian mayors defy new immigration rules</s>ABOARD SEA-WATCH 3, Mediterranean (Reuters) - After two weeks stranded at sea and battered by winter storms, migrants onboard a rescue ship are growing frustrated, supplies are dwindling and the crew are exhausted as European countries refuse to offer a safe port of call.

The Sea-Watch 3, a vessel run by a German humanitarian group, plucked 32 people from an unsafe boat off the coast of Libya on Dec. 22, including three small children who are suffering from seasickness and four teenagers, who are traveling alone.

The vessel is now in Maltese waters sheltering from high winds and rough seas.

“We are here on this boat and we do not understand what is happening,” Bob Kiangala, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told Reuters.

“We are not fish, we are not sharks, we are human beings like everyone else. We made this crossing, we risked our lives to get to Europe, and now that we have arrived, Europe refuses, and we do not know why,” he said.

Another German humanitarian group, Sea-Eye, is also in waters off Malta with 17 people rescued on Dec. 29 on board its ship.

This week almost two dozen humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, called on the European Union to offer a safe port to both vessels.

Until June last year, Italy took in almost all of the migrants rescued by humanitarian groups, but since then the new populist government’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has closed the ports to rescue ships.

The mayor of Naples said on Thursday he was ready to let the ship dock at the town’s port, but ports and immigration are controlled by the central government.

In recent months Spain and Malta have agreed to take in some rescued migrants, but often not before long negotiations with other EU countries. As a consequence, most humanitarian groups have abandoned sea rescue efforts.

Crew members on the Sea-Watch 3 are in good spirits but tired, getting an average of about five hours sleep a night, and the migrants, many of whom endured months of abuse in Libya after making a dangerous desert crossing, are showing signs of stress and mental fatigue, Sea-Watch’s head of mission, Philipp Hahn, said.

Sixteen-year-old Achuil Abdallah, who set off alone from his native South Sudan, said he is relieved to have escaped Libya and now is just hoping to reach dry land: “We all need help.”
The mayor of Naples offers to berth a NGO-operated ship with 32 migrants who were rescued on 22 December in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya.