Open Arms has newly attacked the governments of Malta and Italy for closing off ports to NGO ships. Immediately after 60 migrants who had been rescued on June 30 off the Libyan coast were disembarked in Barcelona, the founder of the Catalan NGO, Oscar Camps, blasted the fact that the journey to the Catalan capital had cost "four days and 360 deaths".

The number represents those who the NGO was prevented from saving due to the absence in recent days of NGO migrant rescue ships off the Libyan coasts.

NGOs in 'situation of powerlessness'

"The government of Malta doesn't let our ships depart, the Italian one doesn't let us enter," Camps said. He avoided launching new controversial messages at Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, because Camps said "that's what (Salvini) would like". He did, however, invite Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli to "disobey the interior minister if he wants to respect international maritime law".

Open Arms Head of Mission Anabel Montes said the closure of the ports in Malta and Italy has put the NGO "in a situation of powerlessness. When our ships are there, more people arrive alive, when we're not there, they die".

Open Arms in Barcelona

The ship Open Arms reached Barcelona after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accepted the disembarkation of the 60 migrants aboard. It was a return home for the Catalan NGO's ship, accompanied by the sailboat Astral with four European Parliament MPs aboard, including the Italian MP Eleonora Forenza. The 60 migrants - 50 men, five women and five children, three of whom were unaccompanied - underwent medical exams by Spanish doctors aboard the ship and were then transferred to reception centres made available by the Catalan government. All of the migrants were in good health and only one was found to have "psychosocial problems" and was hospitalised.

The Spanish government said it will give the migrants humanitarian stay permits for 30 days, to provide enough time to clarify their situations. That includes determining whether they want to go to other EU countries where they have relatives, or they want to request to stay in Spain, where they could end up in migrant detention centres and then be expelled.

The arrival of the Open Arms in the Port of Barcelona was welcomed by two of the NGO's activists, who climbed up the famed 60-metre statue of Christopher Colombus situated at the port in order to put a large orange life vest with the Open Arms logo in his hand, while many tourists looked on.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who was elected with Podemos, took a hard line against Europe. "The European border policy is a policy of death," Colau said. "European governments should do what Open Arms does: save lives," she said.