Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini of Italy’s new rightist government called “to crush” weapons and drugs linked to human trafficking as NGOs battle to let rescued asylum-seekers disembark.
As of Sunday, several foreign NGO ships are asking Italy for permission to disembark around 1,000 migrants, with two ships with rescued asylum-seekers already docked at the country’s shores. Minister of Home Affairs Matteo Piantedosi has allowed women and children to disembark but refuses to do the same with the healthy men left on the ship with their rescuers.
“Whoever is on board those ships pays around $3,000, which becomes weapons and drugs for the traffickers”, Salvini (Lega/ID) told RTL 102.5.
“These are increasingly dangerous organised trips. We need to crush the trafficking not only of human beings, which is already huge but of weapons and drugs linked to human trafficking”, added Salvini, who was charged in 2019 with the crime of aggravated kidnapping after preventing, as minister of home affairs, the disembarkation of 147 migrants from the Spanish NGO ship Open Arms.
Rise Above, Norwegian Ocean Vikings, the German Humanity 1 and Geo Barents vessels insist on remaining in Italian waters despite the Italian government’s order asking the boats to return to international waters, under penalty of a €50,000 fine while the latter two have already docked at the port of Catania, in Sicily.
“A pool of lawyers is following the legal position of the 35 refugees on board the ship Humanity 1. They will not leave because it would be illegal. We are taking action to enforce the law and international law”, announced Aboubakar Soumahoro, newly elected MP for the Greens and the Italian Left.
Germany calls on EU, Norway shirks responsibility
“It is important that hundreds of people have been able to disembark, but it is important that all the people are rescued and that they can reach land”, said German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Sasse, who reports that Germany is “in close contact with the Italian authorities”, reminding that rescue at sea is a “moral and legal duty”.
Germany calls for the European Commission to coordinate the disembarkation and eventual redistribution of the migrants, while Norway clarifies that it has “no responsibility” for what NGO ships are doing in Italy, even if flying the Norwegian flag.
According to international law, there is a “moral and legal duty to save people at sea,” says a European Commission spokeswoman, calling on Italy to facilitate the disembarkation of migrants and “minimise the time people spend at sea”.
The so-called ‘international law of the sea’ consists of a number of conventions and agreements, including the 2013 Dublin Regulation on asylum claims.
All provide for the swift rescue of any shipwrecked persons who must be guaranteed disembarkation in a ‘place of safety’ (pos).
Source: euractiv.com
