International sea rescuers have been complaining about Italy for years. With the right-wing politician Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister, there is no prospect of improvement – on the contrary.
After the recent escalation in the dispute over the admission of migrants, the Italian government is threatening civil sea rescuers. “There will certainly be new measures,” said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
She was asked at a press conference whether Italy was planning measures and, for example, wanted to arrest ships from international organizations that did not comply with Italian rules. The right-wing politician did not specifically address this and did not give any details.
Earlier this week, the new government initially banned two organizations – Germany’s SOS Humanity and Doctors Without Borders – from letting all rescued migrants disembark from their ships in the port of Catania. This only happened when the health department sent the men remaining on the ships off board for medical reasons. Meloni recently called the measure “bizarre”. A ship belonging to the organization SOS Méditerranée, the “Ocean Viking”, was not allowed to enter Italian waters and was sent to France. This caused a diplomatic dispute between Rome and Paris.
NGOs reported harassment
The international sea rescuers have been complaining for years that they have been repeatedly put off by Italy and, from their point of view, often have to wait unnecessarily long to be assigned a port by the authorities. The NGOs reported harassment, which included detaining ships sometimes on flimsy grounds and after random checks. The European Court of Justice had banned baseless controls in early August.
Critics accuse the foreign organizations of promoting crossings on the dangerous Mediterranean route and helping people smugglers through their work.
Meloni wants to completely prevent refugees and migrants from making their way from North Africa to southern Italy. She wants a naval blockade and, above all, a European solution to the problem. She recently spoke about this with French President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Source: Stern
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