Italian Authorities: Rescue Boats and Center-Left Democrats

italian authorities: The previous government, under a rigid anti-migrant policy led by right-wing leader Matteo Salvini, banned charity rescue boats from entering Italian waters and disembarking migrants on Italy's shores, according to The Japan Times. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's week-old coalition now contains the center-left Democrats, whose leaders have called for a more humane policy on the rescue boats. Ocean Viking's crew said Italian authorities instructed the ship to sail to Lampedusa. ; The ship, which had appealed for days for a port of safety, is operated by two humanitarian groups, Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee. Italy's current and previous governments have insisted on more solidarity from fellow European Union nations, saying the migrants set out on their journeys seeking asylum or better economic conditions in Europe as a whole, not necessarily Italy. Germany and other EU countries have advocated finding at least an interim solution to the impasse over rescues in the Mediterranean Sea, ahead of a meeting of the bloc's interior ministers in Malta on Sept. 23. Germany's interior minister said in a report published Saturday his country is prepared to take in a quarter of migrants rescued off the Italian coast as the European Union tries to find a solution to repeated standoffs involving humanitarian groups' ships. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.