60 migrants rescued by Spanish boat

A Spanish rescue boat yesterday plucked 60 migrants from a patched-up rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya, igniting another political row between Italy and Malta over who should let the aid boat dock.

The vessel, Open Arms, run by Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms, said it rescued the migrants, including five women, a nine-year-old child and three teenagers, after it spotted a rubber boat patched with duct tape floating in the sea.

All the migrants appeared in good health.

Italy's right-wing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini quickly declared that the rescue boat "can forget about arriving in an Italian port" and claimed the boat should go to Malta, the nearest port.

But Malta swiftly pushed back, with its interior minister contending that the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, was closer to the boat.