ROME: Nearly 140 migrants who had been stranded on a boat at a port in Sicily were allowed to disembark early on Sunday after Ireland and Albania agreed to take some of them in.
The boat docked at Catania port on Monday but Italy had refused to let those on board disembark in the absence of any EU commitment to relocate them, prompting a new bitter row with Brussels.
But following a deal brokered by the Catholic Church late on Saturday, Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini agreed to allow them to leave the Diciotti, the Italian coast guard ship which rescued them some 10 days ago.
There were initially around 180 migrants on board when it arrived at Catania, but Rome allowed 27 unaccompanied minors to disembark on Wednesday and a dozen women and men left the boat Saturday following a request from health authorities.
Albania, which is not a member of the EU, was the first to offer safe haven to 20 of the migrants.
The migrants disembarked several hours after Sicilian prosecutors said they had opened an inquiry into Salvini for “illegal confinement, illegal arrest and abuse of power” over his refusal to allow the migrants to disembark, media reports said.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos welcomed the deal, saying it was the result of “solidarity across borders and communities.”
“But we cannot always wait for this type of goodwill solidarity. We need to have structural measures,” he said in a statement.
The Diciotti standoff was the latest in a string of incidents involving Italy’s recently installed populist government, which has increasingly refused to take in boats carrying migrants rescued off Libya, prompting sharp divisions across the EU.
On Friday, Rome threatened to pull funding for the EU unless it agreed to take in some of those on board the Diciotti.
But Avramopoulos warned that Italy would end up “shooting itself in the foot” by its ongoing attacks over the bloc’s policies on migrants.
“I think that politicians in your country need to understand that you are not alone, that Europe is trying to help you. On the contrary, anyone who attacks the EU is shooting himself in the foot,” he told Sunday’s edition of La Repubblica newspaper.
Leading the charge has been Salvini, who heads the far-right League party and Luigi Di Maio, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star.
“The Commission has clearly said ‘no’ to threats, that they are unacceptable. All governments are required to respect their obligations regarding membership in the EU,” Avramopoulos said.
And he stressed the need for a clear policy on how to handle any future incidents involving migrants rescued at sea.
“We cannot move ahead with ad hoc solutions for each boat. The migration phenomenon is not going to stop overnight so we need to manage it together as one European family,” he said.
On Saturday, Albania’s Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati sent a message to his Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi which was published on Twitter, saying Tirana was “ready to help.”
“We cannot replace Europe but we are always here, on the other side of a sea where once we were the Eritreans suffering for days and nights in the middle of the sea, waiting for Europe to wake up,” Bushati wrote.
After the fall of communism in early 1990s, Italy accepted thousands of people who fled Albania by sea, with Tirana keen to return the favor.
“Yesterday, Italy saved us, today we are ready to give a hand,” the minister said.
Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived since 2013, fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Rome has recently moved to block boats from docking at its ports.
Speaking on Friday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Europe had “a fundamental moral and legal obligation” to help those fleeing war and persecution.
“The time has come to end the back-and-forth that has seen countries competing in a race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea,” he said.
“It is dangerous and immoral to put the lives of refugees and asylum-seekers at risk while states engage in a political tug-of-war on long-term solutions.”
Italy lets migrants off stranded boat as deal reached
Italy lets migrants off stranded boat as deal reached
- Italy has threatened economic reprisals against the EU for not helping it enough with migrants
- Minors and ailing migrants, were allowed off earlier
Tug of war: how US presidents battle Congress for military powers
- The last official declaration of war by Congress was as far back as World War II
WASHINGTON, United States: Donald Trump’s unleashing of operation “Epic Fury” against Iran has once more underscored the long and bitter struggle between US presidents and Congress over who has the power to decide on foreign military action.
In his video address announcing “major combat” with the Islamic republic, Trump didn’t once mention any authorization or consultation with the US House of Representatives or Senate.
In doing so he sidelined not only Democrats, who called for an urgent war powers vote, but also his own Republican party as he asserts his dominance over a largely cowed legislature.
A US official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called top congressional leaders known as the “Gang of Eight” to give them a heads up on the Iran attack — adding that one was unreachable.
Rubio also “laid out the situation” and consulted with the same leaders on Tuesday in an hour-long briefing, the US official said.
According to the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war.
But at the same time the founding document of the United States first signed in 1787 says that the president is the “commander in chief” of the military, a definition that US leaders have in recent years taken very broadly.
The last official declaration of war by Congress was as far back as World War II.
There was no such proclamation during the unpopular Vietnam War, and it was then that Congress sought to reassert its powers.
In 1973 it adopted the War Powers Resolution, passed over Richard Nixon’s veto, to become the only lasting limit on unilateral presidential military action abroad.
The act allows the president to carry out a limited military intervention to respond to an urgent situation created by an attack against the United States.
In his video address on Saturday, Trump evoked an “imminent” threat to justify strikes against Iran.
- Sixty days -
Yet under this law, the president must still inform Congress within 48 hours.
It also says that if the president deploys US troops for a military action for more than 60 days, the head of state must then obtain the authorization of Congress for continued action.
That falls short of an official declaration of war.
The US Congress notably authorized the use of force in such a way after the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda. Presidents have used it over the past two decades for not only the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan but a series of operations in several countries linked to the “War on Terror.”
Trump is far from the first US president to launch military operations without going through Congress.
Democrat Bill Clinton launched US air strikes against Kosovo in 1999 as part of a NATO campaign, despite the lack of a green light from skeptical lawmakers.
Barack Obama did the same for airstrikes in Libya in 2011.
Trump followed their example in his first term in 2018 when he launched airstrikes in Syria along with Britain and France.
But since his return to power the 79-year-old has sought to push presidential power to its limits, and that includes in the military sphere.
Trump has ordered strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in Latin America without consulting Congress, and in June 2025 struck Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Perhaps the most controversial act was when he ordered the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a lightning military raid on January 3.
Republicans however managed to knock down moves by Democrats for a rare war powers resolution that would have curbed his authority over Venezuela operations.
Trump has meanwhile sought to extend his powers over the home front. Democrats have slammed the Republican for deploying the National Guard in several US cities in what he calls a crackdown on crime and immigration.
