The Italian authorities have fined and blocked for 60 days the Doctors Without Borders ship, the Geo Barents, after it docked on Monday in the port of Salerno (south). after recovering 191 migrants at sea in recent days in various rescue operations.
The charge is to have raped repeatedly government provisions on the activity of migrant rescue NGOs across not to communicate to the organizations responsible for the safety at sea of the rescue operations carried out.
This is an “inhumane decision” that “stops MSF’s activity in the central Mediterranean. This is the third time that our ship has been subjected to a punitive measure of this type for fulfilling their legal obligation to save lives at sea,” the NGO said on its social networks.
Among the 191 migrants who arrived Salerno There were three women and 23 unaccompanied minors. Several health emergencies occurred on board: around 20 cases of scabies and some migrants suffered burns during the crossing, MSF explained.
The Italian government, chaired by the extreme right Giorgia Melonihas made it harder for NGOs to navigate its immigration policy, requiring them to carry out only one rescue, sending them to very remote ports or blocking ships for up to 60 days if they do not follow its instructions, among other measures.
Meanwhile, the Nadir sailboat of the NGO Reqship managed to rescue 43 people in danger on a barge spotted a few hours earlier by one of the small planes of the rescue organizations.
“At the same time, the ship of Doctors Without Borders, Geo Barentsis blocked in port for 60 days by the Italian authorities under the absurd accusation of having violated the law. Any excuse is good enough to block NGOs and prevent them from saving the lives that Italy and the European Union “at the bottom of the sea, locked in concentration camps, abandoned in the desert,” the NGO denounced.
On the other hand, the NGO ship Emergency carried out three rescues in international waters for a total of 158 shipwrecked in a few hours“We are requesting the medical evacuation of two people poisoned by inhaling fuel. The Italian authorities have organised an evacuation by helicopter off Lampedusa, while the safe port they have assigned us is Ancona, four days away by sea,” explained the Spaniard 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 reached 40,138, compared to 113,000 in the same period last year, according to data from the Interior Ministry.
