The Italian authorities have fined and blocked for 60 days the ship of the NGO Doctors Without Borders, Geo Barents, after it rescued 191 migrants at sea in recent days during various operations without returning to port, which contravenes the government’s provisions on the activity of organizations operating in Italian waters.
The ship arrived on Monday at the port of Salerno (south), where it was blocked. “This is the third time that our ship has been subjected to a punitive measure of this type for having fulfilled its legal obligation to save lives at sea,” MSF denounced on its social networks.
The Geo Barents picked up 191 migrants, including three women and 23 unaccompanied minors. Several health emergencies occurred on board: around twenty cases of scabies and some migrants suffered burns during the crossing, according to MSF. All disembarked on Monday in Salerno.
“Any pretext is good enough to block NGOs and prevent them from saving these lives that Italy and the European Union would like to see at the bottom of the sea, locked up in concentration camps, abandoned in the desert,” the NGO declared.
The Italian government, headed by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, has complicated the task of NGOs as part of its immigration policy, requiring them to carry out only one rescue, sending them to very distant ports or blocking ships for up to 60 days if they do not follow its instructions, among other measures.
On the other hand, the ship of the NGO Emergency carried out three rescues in international waters out of a total of 158 shipwrecked people in a few hours. “We are requesting the medical evacuation of two people poisoned by inhaling fuel. The Italian authorities have organized an evacuation by helicopter off Lampedusa, while the safe port they have assigned us is Ancona, four days away by sea,” explained the Spanish Anabel Montes Mier, head of mission of the Life Support ship.
In recent days, the reception centre on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa has been hosting up to 900 migrants, more than triple its capacity. The number of migrants arriving on Italian shores this year has been 40,138, compared to 113,000 in the same period last year, according to data from the Italian Interior Ministry.
