Migrant rescue ship heads for Italy after judge overrules Salvini

Spanish humanitarian ship Open Arms headed for the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday with 147 rescued migrants on board after a judge in Rome suspended far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's decree banning them from Italy's territorial waters.

The Proactiva Open Arms charity which operates the ship said it would not try to force entry to Lampedusa port, as another rescue vessel, the Sea-Watch 3 did in June, prompting its seizure and the arrest of its captain.

The Open Arms is seeking shelter from 2.5-metre (eight-foot) swells along with the Ocean Viking ship operated by SOS Mediterranea and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has more than 350 migrants plucked from the Mediterranean on board.

Both Italy and Malta have refused both vessels permission to dock and unload their passengers.

Since coming to power in June 2018, Salvini has repeatedly taken a hard line against migrants.

Salvini announced a swift appeal against the judge's ruling and signed another decree, saying that the Open Arms behaviour showed its "political objective of bring (migrants) to Italy".

Proactiva Open Arms' founder Oscar Camps told journalists in Madrid, "We won the appeal which we filed at an administrative court in Italy against the security decree."
"What a strange country," Salvini complained from a beach in the northwest of Italy. "The court in Lazio (Rome) wants to authorise a foreign boat to disembark foreign migrants in Italy."