A row over where migrants disembark is likely to overshadow a meeting of European Union defense and foreign ministers on Thursday. Italy is threatening to pull the plug if its demands are not met.
Italy is expected to use a meeting of European defense and foreign ministers in Vienna on Thursday to ask other members of the bloc to take in migrants rescued at sea under the EU’s “Sophia” mission.
With little immediate sign of a compromise in sight, the row could jeopardize the EU’s anti-trafficking mission in the Mediterranean.
What is the Sophia row about?
- Operation Sophia was launched in 2015 after a series of fatal shipwrecks in the Mediterranean involving migrants from North Africa and the Middle East.
- The mission’s mandate is to combat people-traffickers sending migrants on dangerous voyages.
- Twenty-six EU countries are involved in the mission, which is currently under Italian command.
- Migrants rescued at sea disembark at an Italian port.
- The Italian government, led by a new populist coalition of the League and 5 Star Movement, wants the EU to change the rules to allow ships to also dock in neighbouring countries
- Rome is threatening to close its ports to the Sophia mission if its demands are not met by next week.