Italy Allows Migrants to Land in Sicily

Italy will allow 450 migrants who were picked up from an overcrowded boat on Saturday to disembark in Sicily. The decision was taken after Italy said that France, Germany, Malta, Portugal and Spain had each agreed to take 50 migrants, reported BBC. Malta and Italy had earlier each insisted that the other country should allow the boat to dock. Italy’s new government has toughened its policies in an effort to stem the flow of arrivals on its shores. The migrants were rescued from a boat in the Mediterranean by two vessels of the EU’s Frontex mission, but Italy was unwilling to allow them to land at its ports. Before the migrants were rescued from their wooden boat on Saturday, Malta had refused calls to allow them to be landed in Valletta, saying that the boat was much closer to the Italian island of Lampedusa.