Europe: "Mediterranean Taxis" for People-Smugglers
The Spanish anti-immigration party Vox filed a lawsuit against Open Arms and called for the arrest of the ship's captain, Óscar Camps. "Disguising its activities as 'rescue work,' this 'NGO' is an accomplice to the people-smuggling of international mafia networks," Vox leader Santiago Abascal tweeted, adding: "Open Arms does not rescue shipwrecked people. If it did, it would take them to the nearest port. What it does is use immigrants as an extortion tool against countries that choose to defend their sovereignty.
"We are facing the umpteenth
mockery of the Spanish Open Arms, which for days has been wandering around the
Mediterranean for the sole purpose of gathering as many people as possible to
bring them always and only to Italy," Salvini tweeted. "In all this time they
already could have gone back and forth to a Spanish port three times. These
NGOs are only political. They are using the immigrants against our country. I
will not give up."