France to deport 44 migrants rescued by ship in Italy row

France has rejected asylum applications from 44 of the 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the Ocean Viking NGO ship, who will be returned to their country of origin, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday.

Published: 15 November 2022 16:07 CET

France to deport 44 migrants rescued by ship in Italy row

Migrants stand on board the Ocean Viking prior disembarking in Toulon on November 11, 2022 (Photo by Vincenzo Circosta / AFP)

The ship was allowed to disembark at the French port of Toulon last Friday after Italy refused access to its ports, sparking a diplomatic row over how to handle the thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa each year.

Speaking in parliament, Darmanin said the 44 migrants will be deported “as soon as their health allows,” adding that others could also be sent home as more asylum claims are examined.

France had never before allowed a rescue vessel carrying migrants from the Mediterranean to land on its coast, but did so this time because Italy had refused access.

The French government said under international maritime law, the Ocean Viking with its passengers in distress should have been granted access to the nearest ports.

But Italy, under its new far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, wants other EU nations to shoulder more of the burden, and appears ready to force the issue to the top of the European agenda.

In retaliation for Italy’s stance, France suspended a plan to take 3,500 refugees currently in Italy, part of a European distribution accord, and urged Germany and other EU nations to do the same.

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The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) is currently far ahead in opinion polls for the June 9th elections in France, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party in a battle for second place with the Socialists.

The debate between Attal, 35, and Bardella, 28, who leads the RN’s list in the EU elections, will be the first head-to-head clash between the two leading figures in a new French political generation.

Polls have been making increasingly uncomfortable reading for Macron, who has had to fly to the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia to try to calm the violent unrest there.

Coming third would be a disaster for the president, who portrays himself as a champion of European democracy and bulwark against the far right.

The head of Macron’s party list for the elections, the little known Valérie Heyer, has failed to make an impact and was widely seen as losing a debate with Bardella earlier this month.

According to a Toluna-Harris Interactive study for French media, the presidential camp is stuck at just 15 percent of the vote and in a dogfight for second place with the Socialists – who are on 14.5 percent – led by former commentator Raphael Glucksmann.

The RN, by contrast, is soaring ahead on 31.5 percent.

The RN’s figurehead Marine Le Pen, who has waged three unsuccessful presidential campaigns, has sought to bring the RN into the political mainstream as she eyes another tilt at the presidency in 2027.

“There is a very clear signal that must be sent to Emmanuel Macron. He must suffer the worst possible defeat to bring him back to earth,” Le Pen told CNews and Europe 1 this week.

Bardella, who took over the party leadership from his mentor, is key to Le Pen’s strategy, a gifted communicator of immigrant origin with an expanding following on TikTok.

Attal, also one of the best debaters in Macron’s government, is expected to seek to portray Bardella as an extremist, complacent over the threat posed by Russia and who has little interest in Europe.

Apparently aware of the danger, Bardella on Tuesday said the RN will no longer sit in the EU parliament with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, indicating it had lost patience with the controversies surrounding its German allies.

The head of the AfD’s list in the polls, Maximilian Krah, had said in a weekend interview that someone who had been a member of the SS in Nazi Germany was “not automatically a criminal”.

Bardella is “putting his credibility and the future of his movement on the line in the debate”, said the Le Monde daily, adding that a strong performance could see some RN supporters regard him as a stronger candidate in 2027 than Le Pen.

You can find a more detailed profile of Attal HERE and a look at Bardella HERE