Migrants disembark in Sicily after EU sharing plan reached

About 400 migrants aboard two border patrol ships disembarked in a Sicilian port Monday after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than leave Italy alone to process their asylum claims.

Police check a migrant disembarked from Frontex ship "Protector" at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy, in the early hours of Monday, July 16, 2018. Migrants aboard two border patrol ships have disembarked in a Sicilian port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than have Italy process their asylum claims alone. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Italy's hard-line, anti-migrant government had kept the two military ships from docking at Pozzallo for two days until other countries stepped up in the latest standoff forced by Italy over migrant rescues.

Early Monday, the ships came into port and disembarked their passengers, who were seen being screened at dawn. The women and children had already come ashore.

Doctors at the scene said one of the men was hospitalized in critical condition with pneumonia, while the others were in generally good health but suffering from scabies. They reported that four Somalis had died early on in their voyage when they jumped into the sea.

On Sunday, Germany, Spain, and Portugal each agreed to respectively accept 50 of the migrants, following similar offers by France and Malta. They were responding to a request by the Italian premier, who sent individual letters to each EU member asking for a firm gesture of solidarity so that Italy isn't left alone to cope.

But not everyone agreed. The Czech Republic rebuffed the appeal and called the distribution plan a "road to hell" that would just encourage more human traffickers.

Italy has for years complained that it has been left alone to cope with the estimated 640,000 migrants who have arrived on its shores since 2014, most of them smuggled aboard boats and rubber dinghies from lawless Libya.

A woman is carried away on a stretcher after disembarking from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, Sunday, July 15, 2018. Another day's worth of food and beverages was sent Sunday to a pair of military ships off Sicily as Italy waited for more European nations to pledge to take a share of the hundreds of migrants on board before allowing the asylum-seekers to step off onto Italian soil. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Children disembark from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, Sunday, July 15, 2018. Another day's worth of food and beverages was sent Sunday to a pair of military ships off Sicily as Italy waited for more European nations to pledge to take a share of the hundreds of migrants on board before allowing the asylum-seekers to step off onto Italian soil. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has spearheaded Italy's tough line on migration, said the redistribution deal was just a temporary solution and that the ultimate goal is for Libya to be considered a safe enough haven for migrants to be returned. Italy is also pushing for the EU to fund "hotspots" in migrants' home countries where asylum bids can be processed.

Salvini said the EU has a "bipolar" relationship with Libya, providing training and boats to beef up its coast guard, but then refusing to consider it a safe port where migrants can be brought back.

"What is prohibited today can be normalized tomorrow," he said of Libya's status as a safe haven. "The European Union should convince itself that this is the only way to get out of this problem."

International law requires those rescued at sea to be brought to a safe port; humanitarian groups say Libya hardly constitutes that, given widespread torture and abuse reported by migrants in Libyan detention centers.

Migrants wait to disembark from Frontex ship "Protector" at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy, in the early hours of Monday, July 16, 2018. Migrants aboard two border patrol ships have disembarked in a Sicilian port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than have Italy process their asylum claims alone. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Migrants wait to disembark from Frontex ship "Protector" at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy, in the early hours of Monday, July 16, 2018. Migrants aboard two border patrol ships have disembarked in a Sicilian port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than have Italy process their asylum claims alone. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Migrants disembark from Frontex ship "Protector" at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy, in the early hours of Monday, July 16, 2018. Migrants aboard two border patrol ships have disembarked in a Sicilian port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than have Italy process their asylum claims alone. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

Asked about the issue Monday, European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud repeated that no European ship participating in a rescue mission can return migrants to Libya "because we don't consider it a secure country."

The European Commission welcomed the fact that the two rescue ships had disembarked their passengers in Pozzallo and that six EU countries had stepped forward, but said such "ad hoc solutions cannot be sustainable in the long term," a spokesman said.

Aid workers at the docks in Pozzallo said the migrants were traumatized and needed care. They expressed alarm that families had likely been separated when the women and children were allowed off the ships, but not the men.

"The reality is that many among these women are very young girls and the children are very young and need their relatives," U.N. refugee agency spokesman Marco Rotunno said.

"It is unacceptable that these people are blocked onboard and that is not allowed to disembark and that their final destination is being negotiated while they are blocked," he added. "Disembarking in a safe port should be granted immediately and a fair relocation should be decided at a later stage."

A paramedic holds a child disembarked from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, Sunday, July 15, 2018. Another day's worth of food and beverages was sent Sunday to a pair of military ships off Sicily as Italy waited for more European nations to pledge to take a share of the hundreds of migrants on board before allowing the asylum-seekers to step off onto Italian soil. (Francesco Ruta/ANSA via AP)

The migrants had set off from Libya in a large fishing boat on Wednesday. Italy and Malta both refused to let the ship dock, and eventually, the migrants were transferred onto two vessels: one participating in the EU border patrol agency's Mediterranean search and rescue mission and one from the Italian border agency.

The International Organization for Migration's Italy spokesman, Flavio Di Giacomo, said Monday that the migrants arriving in Pozzallo reported that four Somalis drowned Friday when they and 30 other migrants jumped into the sea to reach an unidentified rescue ship.

It's not clear what became of the 30 others.

PARIS (AP) — With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the country's capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine on Wednesday.

The camp had become home to about 450 migrants, with images of the eviction spreading rapidly across social media.

Aid workers are concerned that the broader effort by Paris authorities to clear out migrants and other people sleeping rough in the city before the summer Olympics is troubling, as those evicted are not provided longer-term housing assistance.

“The squat was the biggest in France. It doubled in size in one year because of the Olympics. Last year, authorities cleared out migrants from nearby the Olympic Village, and many displaced people came here,” said Paul Alauzy of the humanitarian organization Médecins du Monde, who has been closely following the steady pace of evictions over two years.

The conditions inside the warehouse were cramped, Alauzy said.

The clearance operation will continue over several days. The site is empty: 150 people left the night before the police arrived, while 300 were evicted before 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Among the 450 were 20 children and 50 women, the aid group said.

This action is part of a broader push by local authorities to dismantle makeshift camps as the city prepares to host the Olympics from July 26 to Aug. 11.

Advocacy groups working with the homeless and other vulnerable populations have been voicing their concerns for months. They have been particularly vocal about the accelerated pace of camp clearances as the Games approach, warning of the dire consequences for those who find themselves without shelter.

On Wednesday, observers said some five buses were at the site, intended to transport migrants to specially allocated sites in cities such as Orleans or Bordeaux, or in the wider Paris region, Ile-de-France. Other migrants will be bused to temporary filtering sites.

Alauzy said he fears that “it will just be a matter of days or weeks for many of the migrants to be sleeping rough on the street again.”

Umbrella association Revers de la Medaille, French for The Medal’s Other Side, which underscores the harmful effects of the Games on the most precarious populations, said it did “not know where families with school-going children were sent to.”

The fate of these displaced individuals remains a pressing issue as the city gears up for its time in the global spotlight, highlighting the tension between urban beautification efforts and support for marginalized communities.

Earlier this month, French police removed about 50 migrants, including families with young children, from the forecourt of Paris City Hall. The migrants packed their belongings and boarded a bus to temporary government housing in the town of Besançon in eastern France.

Responding to a question about Wednesday's evacuation, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said she wanted “to emphasize is that it has nothing to do with the Olympics.”

“These policies, they were implemented before the Games, they will be implemented after the Games,” she said. "And we want to handle those difficult situations with the best possible humanity. This is why we work with the aid groups. We really want to make things as fair as they can be.”

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report.

This photo provided by the Collectif Acces au Droit, shows riot police officers lining up, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Vitry-sur-Seine, outside Paris. With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine. (@CAD_asso Collectif Acces au Droit via AP)

This photo provided by the Collectif Acces au Droit, shows riot police officers outside a squat Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Vitry-sur-Seine, outside Paris. With the Paris Olympic Games 100 days away, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France's biggest squat in the south of the capital. Authorities, including dozens of gendarmes, cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine. (@CAD_asso, Collectif Acces au Droit via AP)

FILE - Migrants stand in front of the Paris City Hall, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Earlier this month, French police removed about 50 migrants, including families with young children, from the forecourt of Paris City Hall. The migrants packed belongings and boarded a bus to temporary government housing in the town of Besançon in eastern France. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga , File)

FILE - A homeless sleeps just next to the Eiffel Tower Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Paris. With the Paris Games 100 days away, French police carried out a large-scale eviction at an abandoned factory, located on the southern outskirts of Paris in Vitry-sur-Sein on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani , File)