The Norwegian-flagged Geo Barents rescue ship carrying nearly 600 migrants docked at the port of Catania in Sicily on Sunday.
Salvatore Cavalli / AP
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Salvatore Cavalli / AP
The Norwegian-flagged Geo Barents rescue ship carrying nearly 600 migrants docked at the port of Catania in Sicily on Sunday.
Salvatore Cavalli / AP
CATANIA, Sicily – The captain of a migrant rescue ship operated by charity refused an Italian order to leave the port of Sicily on Sunday after authorities denied 35 migrants aboard his ship. disembark – part of a directive by Italy’s new far-right government to target foreign-flagged rescue ships.
The two-week-old government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is denying safe docking for 4 ships operating in the central Mediterranean that rescued migrants in distress at sea, some 16 days ago, and allowing only those identified as vulnerable go on the boat.
On Sunday, Italy ordered the ship Humanity 1 to leave the port of Catania after bringing in 144 rescued migrants, including children, more than 100 unaccompanied minors and those in need of medical emergency economic.
But its captain refused to comply “until all survivors rescued from distress at sea have been brought on board,” said SOS Humanity, the German charity that operates the ship. The ship remained moored in port with 35 migrants on board.
The following Sunday, a second charity ship arrived in Catania, and the check is being repeated with the 572 migrants on board the Geo Barents ship operated by Doctors Without Borders. Selection was completed late in the evening, with 357 people allowed to depart but 215 blocked on board.
Families are the first to leave the ship. A man holding a child expressed his gratitude, saying “Thank you, Geo Barents, thank you,” as he left. Another man in a wheelchair was carried down by Red Cross officers.
However, two other boats operated by NGOs remained stranded at sea and with no harbor ready to receive the people they saved.
An Italian lawmaker says services are lacking in the selection process
Humanitarian groups, human rights activists and two Italian lawmakers have traveled to Sicily to protest the selection process as illegal and inhumane. Italy’s new Interior Minister Matteo Pingedosi is targeting NGOs, which Italy has long accused of encouraging human trafficking in the central Mediterranean. The groups denied the claim.
“Free everyone, free them,” said Italian lawmaker Aboubakar Soumahoro in an emotional appeal to Meloni from the Humanity 1 rescue ship.
Soumahoro, who spent the night on board, said:
Later in port, he accused Meloni of playing politics at the expense of “infants, women, people who suffer all kinds of trauma”, including torture in Libyan prisons.
He said no interpreters or psychologists were present during the Italian selection process and that many of the migrants were from the Gambia, unable to speak French, English or Italian.
“Their fault is speaking another language. Their fault is having a different color,” Soumahoro said, accusing the Italian government of using migrants to distract from other issues, including prices. high power.
SOS Humanity 1 spokesman Wasil Schauseil, aboard The Humanity 1, doctors in Italy identified people in need of urgent medical attention after the ship’s medics declined the selection. Thirty-six people were declared non-vulnerable and were not allowed to get off the train, causing one to collapse and be taken away by ambulance.
“You can imagine the condition of the people. It’s very dire,” he said.
Two other ships with rescued migrants are still stuck at sea
Both SOS Humanity and Doctors Without Borders issued statements stating that all of their passengers are vulnerable after being rescued at sea and deserve a safe port under international law. SOS Humanity said it plans to file a civil suit in Catania to ensure that all 35 survivors on the plane have access to official asylum procedures on land.
Doctors Without Borders emphasized that “a rescue operation is only considered complete when all survivors have been taken to a safe place.”
Two other charity ships carrying rescued migrants remain stranded at sea, with those sleeping on decks and decks, spreading respiratory infections and scabies as food and medical supplies descend short.
The German-operated Rise Above, carrying 93 people rescued at sea, was looking for a better protected position in waters east of Sicily due to weather, but spokesman H Regichmann on Sunday said the crew The delegation did not receive any communication from the Italian authorities.
Poschmann described cramped conditions on the relatively small 25-meter (82-foot) ship.
A spokesman said the Ocean Viking, operated by the European charity SOS Mediteranee, with 234 migrants, remained in international waters, south of the Strait of Messina, and had no instructions to go to a destination. Italian port. Its first rescue was 16 days ago.
A charity worker named Morgane told The Associated Press Sunday, “The hysteria was evident among the survivors,” a charity worker named Morgane told The Associated Press Sunday.
“Today, the weather deteriorated significantly, bringing strong winds, rough seas and rain on deck… these extreme conditions further distressed,” she said.
Willingness of other countries to accept migrants
The confrontational stance taken by Meloni’s government is reminiscent of the stalemate held by Matteo Salvini, now Meloni’s Ports Infrastructure Minister, during his brief 2018-19 Interior Minister tenure. . The new Italian government is requiring countries whose flags charity ships fly to accept migrants.
In a Facebook video, Salvini repeated his accusations that the presence of humanitarian boats encourages smugglers.
The NGOs refuted that claim, saying they had an obligation under the law of the sea to rescue people in distress and that coastal states had an obligation to provide a safe port as soon as possible.
Amnesty International called Italy’s position “disgraceful.”
“Italy expects other EU member states to share the responsibility for legitimate asylum seekers, but this does not justify imposing measures that only increase suffering,” the group said. of those who have been hurt”.
