In a shocking development for the open borders E.U. bunch, Italy’s new Foreign Minister refused to allow a French NGO vessel permission to land. Filled with 629 rescued migrants and expecting to debark its human cargo on Italian shores (per usual, as Italy is the nearest port in a direct line from Libya), Matteo Salvini said, “Basta (ENOUGH)!” 

Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, promised during Italy’s recent general election to take a tough stance against migration.

He says Malta should accept the Aquarius, but it refused, arguing that it falls under Italy’s jurisdiction.

Italy is the main entry for migrants crossing from North Africa to Europe.

…Meanwhile, Mr Salvini says a second ship has rescued hundreds more migrants near Libya and is heading for Italy.

“Italy has stopped bowing its head to obey, this time there are those who say NO,” he tweeted in response.

Frantic negotiations and recriminations exploded Monday afternoon, when the island nation of Malta also refused to accept the vessel: rebuffing a direct call from the U.N. to take the ship, while insisting that Italy was the one “violating international norms.”

With all due respect to “international norms” regarding boatloads of seafaring “migrants” escaping North Africa, Italy has had quite enough of them, thank you. As well as having quite enough of E.U. ministers in Brussels dictating their compliance with migrant welcoming committees, for which the Italians rightly feel they (and the Greeks) are the only ones footing the bills. As a matter of fact, your average Italian has felt so strongly about the overwhelming crisis pouring in from offshore that they voted in a new government, ostensibly promising to stand up to Brussels. Unlike many newly elected politicians, these guys did what they said they would: put a halt to the boats landing.

“The priority of both the Italian and Maltese authorities should be ensuring these people receive the care they need,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, calling for a “swift resolution”.

But Salvini refused to back down.

“Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO,” he wrote on Twitter followed by the hashtag #closethedoors.

Naturally the new government has been  plastered with the “xenophobic/nationalistic” label. But in all actuality, Italy has faced a staggering influx of migrants landing over the past few years, with little, if any, help from the E.U. bureaucracy mandating they do so. The numbers – for a country constantly struggling economically itself – are huge, and has built no small well of resentment.

The cost? Last year alone:

120 000 by sea in 2017

Figures from the International Organization for Migration show that around 120,000 immigrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2017, with the government putting the cost of taking them in at 4.2 billion euros ($5.2 billion).

Two-thirds of that figure was spent on caring for asylum seekers, while 18 percent went on sea rescue and 13 percent on medical assistance.

In 2013, there were 22,000 people in asylum centres. By January, that number stood at 182,000.

The outright refusal to allow the boat safe harbor led to a cascade of admonitions from other European countries, even as they tried to find anywhere else that the thing could land. Absolutely astonishing that in the WHOLE of the Mediterranean, there was NOWHERE ELSE for these people to go, right?

At last, Spain stepped up Monday afternoon and agreed to allow the migrants to disembark there, while baldly admitting that Italy and Greece had been tasked with far more than their share of the influx.

The new Spanish administration headed by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed to allow the Aquarius to dock in its eastern port of Valencia, insisting that it was an “obligation” to do so.

But Spain’s new foreign minister, Josep Borrell, said the gesture was also intended to underline the need for solidarity from the entire bloc.

“Italy has received an enormous influx of migrants and so far other European countries haven’t shown much solidarity,” Borrell told a news briefing in Madrid.

There was, he said, a “need for Europeans… to face up, in a united and coordinated manner, to a problem that is a problem for all, and not just for Greece one year and for Italy the next”.

The Italians put it more bluntly. They’re fed up.

The dispute was among the first consequences of political upheaval in Italy, where anti-migrant leaders recently rose to power with a pledge to crack down on new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa. At a news conference on Monday, Italy’s powerful interior minister, Matteo Salvini, protested the inequity of Italy serving as a primary entry point for refugees and migrants while other members of the European Union balk at helping to resettle them.

“This was a first important signal that Italy cannot go on alone supporting this huge weight,” said Salvini, who threatened to bar additional rescue vessels.

Of course, I’m not quite sure why a French NGO “rescue” ship doesn’t take them to FRANCE, which would be closer and safer for all these suffering people they describe…

SOS Mediterranee director general Sophie Beau said Spain’s offer “is encouraging and shows that some states are sensitive to the humanitarian emergency”.

She warned that the ship will have to travel some 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) to reach the Spanish coast — which AFP estimates could take at least four days — and that by Tuesday “there will be no more food (on board) apart from energy biscuits”.

…but, well, they ARE the French.

And I will bet you a pretty Euro that the migrants will be wearing out their welcome shortly, now that they’re becoming a regular “thing” in Spain, as well. Familiarity breeds contempt…

The move comes as the number of migrants arriving on Spanish shores continues to grow. Migrant arrivals to Spain have increased by 50% so far in 2018 compared to last year, while Italy has seen around a 75% decline, according to the International Organization for Migrants (IOM). In the first week of June alone, 561 migrants arrived in Spain by sea.

There was some mouthing of rare and unusual sentiments coming from U.N. types, in direct contradiction of Angela Merkel’s policies, regarding – dare I say it? – SANCTITY/SOVEREIGNTY OF NATIONAL BORDERS:

Asked about the Italian move, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a briefing on Monday that he is concerned that the “space for refugee protection in Europe might be shrinking.”

“My strong appeal is that, recognizing that countries have the right to manage their borders and have the right to define their own migration policies, countries should do it in a protection sensitive way and countries should do it in full respect for international refugee law.”

“Recognizing that countries have a RIGHT to manage their own borders” is one helluva a concession, and a completely foreign concept to this current crop of globalists. (Of course, there was the “be sensitive” attached.) I believe the fact that it’s not a former Ottoman Empire/Soviet satellite like Hungary being defiant is also going to rattle the cage, but I would suspect that Spain follows suit shortly. They have their own internal strife, and are not know for open arms charity in any event. Ms Merkel’s decisions of the past decade are going to come home to dry dock, and it is going to be fugly when, and IF, all these “xenophobes” remember they actually were countries once.