Imagine: a government that puts its own citizens first.

“‘They will only see Italy on a postcard’: Country’s interior minister refuses to let rescue ship carrying 224 migrants dock, a week after turning away vessel with 630 people on board,” by Tim Stickings, Mailonline, June 22, 2018:

Italy’s hard-line interior minister has refused to let a rescue boat with 224 migrants on board dock in Italy, saying those on board ‘will only see Italy on a postcard’.

Matteo Salvini’s latest move to clamp down on arrivals from the Mediterranean comes a week after he turned away another foreign ship, the Aquarius, which was carrying 630 migrants and had to reroute to Spain.

Salvini said the latest ship, operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, had loaded the migrants in Libyan waters against the instructions of Italy’s coast guard.

Mission Lifeline denied Salvini’s claims, saying it conducted the rescue in international waters and asked for a safe port, which had not been assigned.

The interior minister, who is urging Malta to take in the Dutch-flagged ship as he pressures European partners to share the burden, said today: ‘We cannot take in one more person. On the contrary: We want to send away a few.’

Salvini added: ‘For the safety of the crew and those rescued we humanly and politically ask Malta to finally open one of its ports, and then seize the ship and its crew.’

He said: ‘Italian ports are no longer at the disposal of traffickers. Open the Maltese ports! Open the French ports.’

The Aquarius, operated by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, took the migrants to Spain, travelling an additional 932 miles, after Italy and Malta refused to let them land….