EU reminds Italy of its “moral and legal” duty to allow all migrants to disembark

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“We are reaching an untenable situation. The need to get down to earth for all people is urgent. The rescue operation is not over yet,” the NGOs warn

The first migration crisis facing the right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni also threatens to turn into a diplomatic crisis with the European Union, as Brussels this Monday reminded Italy that it has a “moral and legal” duty to provide the most than 1,000 people rescued by NGO ships in the Central Mediterranean. It is not enough for the European Commission that only the most vulnerable go ashore, as happened this weekend in the port of Catania with two of these humanitarian ships, the ‘Humanity 1’, of the German NGO Sos Humanity, and the ‘Geo Barents’ chartered by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

On board these ships are 250 displaced persons who are not allowed to disembark because the Italian authorities consider that they are not in a vulnerable situation and therefore want them to be taken to the flag states of these ships. There are also two other ships chartered by NGOs, the ‘Ocean Viking’ and the ‘Rise Above’, waiting off the Italian coast with over 250 people on board to be assigned a safe harbor to take them to .

In a sign of the desperation facing immigrants who are not allowed to go ashore, three young people aboard the ‘Geo Barents’ jumped into the sea on Monday to try to swim to land. They were rescued and taken to a dock. “We are reaching an untenable situation. This should not happen. The need to disembark all people is urgent. The rescue operation is not over yet,” Spain’s Anabel Montes, search and rescue coordinator at the Geo Barents, said in a video released by Doctors Without Borders. For his part, Ricardo Gatti, in charge of operations on board the ship, assured that panic attacks were taking place among the migrants. “The situation in terms of vulnerability, at least psychologically, clearly remains,” he denounced.

The ‘Geo Barents’ is still in the port of Catania for the time being as the ‘Humanity 1’, which the Italian authorities have ordered to leave its territorial waters, something that the captain of the humanitarian ship refuses until the disembarkation is also 35 immigrants who remain on board as they are not in a vulnerable situation. “We cannot leave the port with these people. They have the right to go ashore,” Joachim Ebeling, captain of Humanity 1, said Monday, assuring he felt “angry and ashamed” for not being able to let them disembark.

Ebeling described the decree approved by Meloni’s government as “illegal” banning those who are not sick or in a vulnerable situation from going ashore and assured that he will not leave the port of Catania until a solution is found. Sos Humanity will take legal action against the Italian authorities.

Italy’s alleged violation of international maritime law was also highlighted by European Commission spokesman Anitta Hipper, who recalled the “legal obligation” Member States have “whatever the circumstances” to save the lives of migrants. . at sea. “There are legal and moral obligations,” Hipper emphasized.

The Meloni government justifies its position given that the NGO ships are like “islands” of the countries where they are registered, according to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. By that logic, the people who rescue these ships should be taken to the ship’s country of origin and not to the nearest safe harbor, as international maritime law states. In addition to Brussels and NGOs, Rome’s interpretation of the law has also been rejected by Germany and Norway, the flag states of the four humanitarian ships involved.

Source: La Verdad

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