Italy accepts African refugees

PALERMO, Sicily — After weeks stranded in the Mediterranean, 37 Africans were allowed to disembark in Italy yesterday after officials bowed to international pressure and agreed to accept the asylum-seekers.

But Italian authorities later arrested two German aid officials whose ship transported the immigrants to Sicily and said initial checks showed that the Africans were not predominantly Sudanese fleeing the crisis in Darfur, as they had been led to believe.

Several aid agencies said they were told that 36 of the men on the ship were from Sudan and one was from Sierra Leone. Instead, the ANSA news agency reported that the refugees likely were from Ghana and Nigeria.

As the large blue-and-white freighter docked, the refugees watched with delight from the deck, wearing white T-shirts reading “Cap Anamur” — the name of the ship and of the German aid group that operates it. Authorities loaded the men onto a bus and took them to a holding center in the nearby city of Agrigento.

“Finally, humanity wins,” the Vatican newspaper said in a front-page headline.

Yet hours later, the situation had grown more complicated, with Italian authorities holding the ship’s captain, Stefan Schmidt, and the organization’s head, Elias Bierdel, for questioning. They later were arrested.

The German aid group Cap Anamur had said it came across the refugees in a rubber dinghy on June 20 by chance. The ship picked up the men 100 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa and 180 miles from Malta.

It then headed toward Italy, passing through Maltese waters but not stopping on the island, aid officials have said. Once it arrived at the Sicilian coast, Italian coast guard and police boats blocked its path.

Authorities argued that the refugees had passed through Malta first and should apply for asylum there.

But the German aid organization insisted that it wanted to land in Italy. Some experts noted that Italy is seen as a preferable destination to Malta because of its better treatment of refugees.

Relief agencies said the refugees were not suffering from serious health problems, but they ratcheted up pressure on the Italians during the standoff. Last week, the U.N. refugee agency added its concerns, saying Italy should allow the men to land.

Thousands of illegal immigrants arrive in Italy every year, often hoping to travel to other European Union countries. Many deaths have occurred when rickety immigrant boats sank before reaching the long Italian coastline.

This shipload won particular attention because most of the asylum-seekers said they were fleeing from Darfur, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.