Maersk vessel picks up Mediterranean migrants

A Danish ship recently picked up 113 people from the sea and now the haggling begins about where they can be landed

Stephen Gadd

Early on Friday morning, the Danish container ship Alexander Mærsk altered course to rescue a group of 113 migrants from the Mediterranean. According to international law, the ship ought to be able to land them in Italy.

However, recently the Italian integration minister Matteo Salvini closed Italian harbours to ships trying to land migrants picked up in the Mediterranean.

“We can’t accept a single one more. On the contrary, we would like to get rid of some of them,” said Salvini to the German magazine Der Spiegel.

READ ALSO: Migrant stowaways on DFDS ferry left in limbo

There are rules
Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has said that integration minister Inger Støjberg will be contacting her Italian counterpart in order to solve the problem, reports DR Nyheder.

“There is an agreed set of rules for this,” said Rasmussen.

“The Alexander Mærsk was acting on a request from the Italian coast guard when it took the migrants on board, so I can’t imagine that Italy will do anything other than abide by its obligations under international law,” added Rasmussen.

READ ALSO: Government party wants to punish NGOs for saving refugees crossing the Mediterranean

Earlier this month the Aquarius, a ship chartered by the private NGO SOS Mediterranée that had picked up 629 migrants, was the object of a dispute amongst a number of EU countries when it tried to land them. It was refused entry into both Italy and Malta and finally, the Spanish prime minister gave permission for it to dock in Valencia.

TOP STORIES

Connect club

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

Sign up here

Career

  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Contact us

Jobs