Italy on Saturday agreed to allow rescue ship Ocean Viking to disembark 82 migrants on Lampedusa, in a reversal of the hard-line policy under the country’s ex-Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
Mr. Salvini was forced out of office last month after bringing the government down, and the new coalition has been trying to forge its own migrant stance.
It is the first time in 14 months that Italy has offered a migrant rescue ship a safe port, although it took Rome six days and European guarantees to redistribute the migrants before it did so. “The Ocean Viking just received instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Rome to proceed to Lampedusa,” SOS Mediterranee , which operates the vessel, tweeted.
