Spain, Portugal willing to take migrants from Open Arms rescue ship

Spain is willing to take some of the 147 migrants who have been stranded on the rescue ship Open Arms in the Mediterranean Sea for fortnight, Spanish State TV network RTVE reported Thursday.

The Open Arms rescued the migrants from the dinghies in which they were attempting to cross from North Africa to Europe, but has been stranded at sea ever since after the vessel was blocked from docking in Italy by the country's interior minister Matteo Salvini.

The Open Arms, which is operated by a Spain-based charity, was finally given permission to enter Italian waters on Thursday, a day after a court in Rome overturned Salvini's ban.

RTVE cited government sources as saying that Spain was working with several European Union nations and the European Commission in order to find a "common...and orderly solution" to the problem and that Spain was prepared to "participate in a balanced distribution of migrants housed in the ship."

Speaking on Spanish radio station Radio Nacional, Open Arms founder Oscar Camps gave a cautious welcome to the news, saying it was "better late than never."

However, he said he was disappointed it had taken so long to find a solution commenting that "the 14 days of suffering (for the migrants) could have been avoided" if countries had acted sooner.

In June 2018, Spain accepted over 600 migrants who had been rescued from the Mediterranean by another rescue ship named The Aquarius.

Meanwhile, Portugal on Thursday expressed willingness to welcome 10 out of the 147 migrants on board of the rescue ship of Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms under a collective agreement.

"Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and Luxembourg are the countries that have expressed their willingness to welcome the group of people, in a gesture of humanitarian solidarity and a common desire to provide European solutions to the issue of migration and human tragedies in the Mediterranean," Portuguese Ministry of Internal Administration announced in a statement.

The announcement came shortly after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wrote on Facebook that six European countries, which also include Romania, informed him of their willingness to accommodate part of the migrants on board the ship.

Portugal has been active in solving migrant crisis in the past two years, said the statement.

However, the statement reiterated that despite this solidarity act, "the Portuguese government continues to defend an integrated, stable and permanent European solution to meet the migratory challenge."

The Open Arms rescue ship has been near the Italian island of Lampedusa for two weeks, awaiting permission to land 147 rescued people from the Mediterranean.