Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Italy's new anti-migrant law leaves Spanish migrant rescue ship in limbo
The Open Arms ship has been at sea for six days with 121 migrants on board and with nowhere to go
A man peers overboard as the Open Arms stays in international waters between Malta and Lampedusa

THE Italian government’s decision to impose fines of up to €1 million (£923,000) on any migrant rescue NGO that brings non-Europeans rescued from the Mediterranean Sea into its waters is already having a chilling effect on the civil fleet. 

A Spanish migrant rescue ship, currently in international waters between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa with 121 shipwrecked migrants on board, is stuck in limbo after it was denied permission to enter port by both nations. 

On August 1 and 2, the Open Arms charity’s ship rescued 123 migrants, 32 of whom are children, including nine-month-old twins, from two overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A group of people are brought in to the Border Security Command compound in Dover, Kent, from a Border Security Command vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel, August 17, 2026
Migration / 18 August 2026
18 August 2026
The United Nations at the General Assembly hall at UN headquarters
Northwest Africa / 22 July 2026
22 July 2026