Norway takes in rescued migrants rejected by Italy

Norway will accept some of the migrants rescued by the Ocean Viking charity ship that docked in France after Italy refused access to its ports last month.

Although not a member of the European Union, Norway has made an exception to assist France, a ministry spokeswoman told the Agence France-Presse news service, or AFP, in an email.

"We want to underline that Norway has no responsibility for taking any of these migrants to Norway. The government has made this extraordinary decision in response to a request received from France to help in a difficult situation," she said.

The ministry noted that those accepted had "a high probability of filling the criteria for refugee status," and that "unaccompanied minor asylum seekers are precluded from transfer, in order to avoid encouraging this particular migration".

Although it flies the flag of Norway, the Ocean Viking is operated by a French non-governmental organization. After rescuing 234 migrants near the coast of Libya last month, the charity ship spent many weeks requesting a place of safety for the group that included many women and children.

For many days it pleaded to Italy to accept them, before moving on and finally being allowed to dock in the French port of Toulon earlier this month. The French government described the acceptance as an "exceptional "decision.

Agency reports said around 40 children were placed in French social care and 189 adults were taken to a processing center.

The French interior ministry said on Friday that 123 of the adults were not able to prove their refugee claims and had been denied entry. It is from this number that Norway has taken in 20, with 66 others due to be sent to 11 other EU member states, while the fate of the remainder is not clear.

The case is reported to have intensified tension between France and Italy's new right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Last week Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the government regretted the friction created, noting that the Ocean Viking had "autonomously" decided to leave the Italian coast and head towards France.

Rome is reported to be pushing for a compulsory voluntary migrant acceptance scheme for all EU members, and has criticized insufficient relocations under an existing EU burden-sharing arrangement.

Italy ends up taking in more migrants than its EU neighbors as international maritime law states that any vessel in distress must be granted access to the nearest port. But Italy has said charity ships flying the flag of other states should turn to those nations for assistance.

Migrant landings in Italy have increased this year, with almost 93,000 people arriving so far, compared with 59,300 in the same period last year. Ships flying the flag of other states rescued around 15 percent of these people, according to reports.