Spain on Tuesday deployed a naval patrol boat to pick up migrants on a charity rescue boat that has been stranded off Italy’s Lampedusa island for days after numerous people jumped overboard in a desperate bid to swim ashore. Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio also ordered the Open Arms charity vessel preventatively seized after inspecting the Spanish boat on which migrants have spent 19 days and “given the difficult situation on board”, a judicial source said. Against the backdrop of a major political crisis in Italy, Patronaggio intervened as part of his probe into alleged kidnapping and refusing to obey orders targeting far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
