Free Republic

Germany’s Merkel demands that EU states resume illegal Muslim migrant naval pickup mission AUG 22, 2019 5:00 PM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS Earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed out of Operation Sophia, which used naval vessels to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. Her move was in response “to populist Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s policy of keeping ports closed to illegal migrants.” But now Merkel is calling “on members of the European Union (EU) to resume rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean using naval vessels.” Merkel doesn’t seem to think that her country has suffered enough from jihad attacks, the...

Italy’s interior minister has sparked a new migration crisis in the Mediterranean by barring two rescue boats from bringing refugees to shore, a week . “Two other ships with the flag of Netherlands, Lifeline and Seefuchs, have arrived off the coast of Libya, waiting for their load of human beings abandoned by the smugglers,” Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant party the League, wrote on his Facebook page. “These gentlemen know that Italy no longer wants to be complicit in the business of illegal immigration, and therefore will have to look for other ports [not Italian] where to go.”...

An EU naval mission in the Mediterranean has been authorized to start enforcing a UN arms embargo designed to choke off weapon supplies to extremists in Libya. The EU said ambassadors from the bloc’s 28 member countries also voted Tuesday for the EU’s maritime force, known as Operation Sophia, to begin training the Libyan coast guard and navy. …