Italy & EU end latest standoff on African asylum seekers

Five EU countries agree to accept migrants

 

The European Union ended a standoff with Italy over African immigration on Wednesday, agreeing to take 116 asylum-seekers rescued at sea last week but denied permission to go ashore by the country’s right-wing interior minister.

The EU said that Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland had agreed to take the asylum-seekers, meeting a condition set by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for allowing the group to come ashore.

An additional group of those rescued by an Italian coastguard boat last week would be received in Italy with the support of the Catholic Church, it added. Reports last week said there were 135 migrants on the vessel.

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