Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi believes NGO search and rescue boats are encouraging the illegal passage of migrant boats across the Mediterranean. “We cannot allow private vessels flying the flag of another state to replace the Italian government. Our goal is to get the migration phenomenon under control,” Piantedosi said on Tuesday.
“We have noticed that the quality of the boats the migrants leave on has dropped, adding to the tragedies that then occur at sea,” the non-party minister added. Piantedosi rejected the aid agencies’ accusation that the government would allocate its rescue vessels to landing ports in the northern Adriatic to expand their sea route and remove them from the central Mediterranean.
Two ships are expected to arrive at the port of Ancona on Wednesday
The government is reallocating mainland ports to ships to relieve pressure on Sicily’s ports and allow better redistribution of migrants in Italy, the minister said. The ships “Ocean Viking” and “Geo Barents” should arrive in the Adriatic port of Ancona by Wednesday with about 100 migrants on board.
Italy: Decree to make landing rescue ships more difficult
At the end of December, the Italian government passed a decree to make it more difficult for rescue ships to land in southern Italy. The cabinet wants to restrict systematic rescue operations by NGO ships. According to media reports, rescued refugees should submit their asylum application on board the rescue ships, which should be accepted by the ship’s flag state. NGO vessels conducting rescue operations must “meet the requirements of technical and nautical suitability for safe navigation,” the immigration decree states. NGOs recently protested against the decree.
Von der Leyen was concerned about Italy’s asylum policy
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday. Von der Leyen is concerned about Meloni’s new course on immigration after the decree was passed. “It is not for the EU to concern itself with the content of this decree. Apart from that, Member States must respect international law and the law of the sea,” emphasized European Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper last week. “Saving lives at sea is a moral and legal obligation,” Hipper added.
Migration issue: Rome hopes for a European solution
Piantedosi hopes that the migration issue will be resolved at European level. “Europe is a bit slow in its mechanisms and the meeting between Meloni and von der Leyen was certainly important, but not decisive. In any case, we have put the discussion about immigration back at the center of the European agenda,” said the interior minister .
Tajani calls on Tunisia to take measures against people smuggling
Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said he had called on Tunisia to take action to prevent migrants trying to reach Italy from the coast in a telephone conversation with his Tunisian counterpart Othman Jerandi.
“I have asked the Tunisian government for a strong commitment to curbing the illegal exit of migrants and enabling a greater number of returns. I will be in Tunis soon: the Italian government is working to solve the immigration problem,” Tajani said on Twitter.
Source: Krone
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