The ship Ocean Viking, with 230 migrants on board, including 57 children arrived this morning in the port of Toulon at 8:42 am, escorted by French ships and a helicopter. It is located in the military zone, inaccessible even to journalists.
The more than 230 shipwrecked landed in Toulon from the Ocean Viking are not currently allowed on French territory, but placed in an “international waiting area”: this is what was explained by the spokesperson for the French Minister of the Interior, Camille Chaize, interviewed on Bfm-Tv.
The red ship of SOS Méditerranée is now in the military naval base of Toulon, (south-eastern France) according to the images broadcast live on French TV. The migrants will first undergo a medical examination, then the French authorities will start the procedures for submitting asylum applications. According to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmaninabout eighty migrants could already be entrusted to Germany within the day, which has reached an agreement with France to take care of them.
Passengers began disembarking from the Ocean Viking ship. This was announced by the prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, at a press conference in the port of Toulon. The prefect added that the customs services will now notify passengers of their transfer to the waiting area, where their health conditions will be checked. The “waiting area” where the migrants will be welcomed is located near Hyères, “precisely in the Giens peninsula,” he said.
Migrants, Meloni: ‘In no agreement is it written that Italy is the only port of disembarkation’
The position of the NGO
The landing in France of migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean “must not happen again”. This was reported by the NGO Sos Méditerranée which manages the Ocean Viking ship which arrived today in Toulon
France wants to decide “very quickly” on the fate of the more than 230 migrants disembarked from the Ocean Viking in the port of Toulon, in the south of France, after more than 15 days of searching for a safe harbor in the Mediterranean. “Our goal is to start very quickly the set of procedures that will allow us to express ourselves on the situation of these people”, said the Director General for Foreigners at the Paris Ministry of the Interior at a press conference. Eric Jalon. “An interview will be organized within 48 working hours”, together with the employees of the French Refugee Protection Office. These will be asked to comment on the relevance or otherwise of the various asylum requests. People aboard the Ocean Viking will be taken to a holiday village on the Giens peninsula in Hyères, tourist town east of Toulon. To speed up the procedure, Ofpra has planned to mobilize sixteen agents this weekend capable of carrying out up to 90 interviews a day “.” For people whose asylum request will be clearly unfounded, for those who represent security risk, we will get to work (…) with repatriation procedures so that they return to their country of origin “, warned Jalon. Two thirds of Ocean Viking passengers will be relocated to nine European countries – including Germany ( Berlin will welcome about 80), Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Ireland – in the framework of the European solidarity mechanism in which Italy does not participate this time.
Source: Ansa
I am an author and journalist with a focus on market news. I have worked for a global news website for the past two years, writing articles on a range of topics relating to the stock market. My work has been published in international publications and I have delivered talks at both academic institutions and business conferences around the world.
