2024-01-17 07:32:02
BARI, Italy (AP) — The year has started slowly for a rescue ship that routinely cruises the Mediterranean in search of migrants and refugees in trouble. The Ocean Viking has been detained and its crew is accused of deviating from its designated course, as part of a campaign by Italy against the charity groups that operate those ships.
It was the second time in as many months that Italian authorities had detained the 69-meter (225-foot) long ship, managed by the European group SOS Mediterranée, under a decree issued a year ago by the Italian government that regulates charities. maritime rescue.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ultra-conservative leadership government passed a decree as part of its efforts to stem the flow of migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe. Now, Italian maritime authorities assign private rescue ships to ports in central and northern Italy, hundreds of miles and several days of denial from where they can find vessels in trouble.
Authorities also prohibit aid ships from carrying out various rescue operations without authorization.
The government says the measure aims to reduce migratory pressure on southern Italy and regulate maritime missions which it says do nothing more than encourage more migrants to attempt the dangerous journeys from North Africa.
For now, between 13 and 14 rescue ships from charity groups have been detained for various violations. Humanitarian groups deny their activities are an inducement, saying the Italian procedure leaves their ships out of service for days and exposes vulnerable migrants to the vagaries of the Mediterranean.
The SOS Mediterranée is accused of deviating from its assigned route to a port in Bari, a city on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where the ship headed after rescuing 244 people at sea. The Ocean Viking went off course on December 27 to respond to a call from a civil aircraft about a ship in trouble about 15 nautical miles away.
It resumed its original course to Bari when the coordinates were corrected, placing the ship too far away and causing the Italian authorities to rule out the Ocean Viking for the mission.
“We are accused of not following the orders of the Italian coast guard, and the only fault we have is for having followed the law of the sea,” said Alessandro Porro, a veteran rescuer and president of SOS Mediterranée operations in Italy.
After arriving in Bari as planned on December 30, the crew received a 20-day detention order for the ship and a fine of 3,300 euros ($3,600). The arrest warrant expires on Friday, and SOS Mediterranée hopes to leave again as soon as possible, weather permitting.
“We know that this is a tactic to try to stop our operation, rather than something valid in a way,” said Mary Finn, another rescuer on the Ocean Viking. “And it’s painful for me to feel that humanity is not on our side or that the authorities They are not on our side, because when you do this work it is very evident that what we are doing is the right thing.”
Sara Kelany, immigration policy coordinator for Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, agreed that saving lives is a priority. But she said the presence of charity ships in the Mediterranean should be limited and highly regulated.
Kelany alleged that many of the groups organizing humanitarian missions to the Mediterranean also have a stated political goal of changing the European Union’s migration policy.
“In essence, they want to be political actors on the dynamics of immigration,” he said in an interview. “Immigration is a national competence and we cannot allow private organizations to influence our immigration policy with their policies.”
More than 60% of the 260,000 people who arrived in Europe last year across the Mediterranean from North Africa arrived in Italy first, according to Italian and United Nations statistics.
Meanwhile, more than 3,000 people drowned at sea while trying to make the journey in 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration, which estimates that more than 28,800 people in total have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
It is unclear what effect, if any, Italian regulations have had on maritime rescue groups or on the number of migrants arriving in Europe or missing at sea. Humanitarian ships only rescued around 8% of asylum seekers arriving in Italy, compared to a record 41% in 2017. Most arrived on their own boats or were picked up by the Italian coast guard.
After taking office at the end of 2022, Meloni’s government promised to curb arrivals. Instead, the numbers increased dramatically, with more than 157,000 in 2023 compared to 105,000 people the previous year. On one day in September, more than 7,000 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa.
Meloni has encouraged agreements designed to prevent people from setting sail for Europe and also presented a development plan for Africa aimed at giving more economic opportunities to citizens so they are not desperate to leave.
Details of the plan, which is named after Enrico Mattei, former president of the Italian oil company ENI, which has strategic interests in several North African countries, have not been published.
Aside from that, Meloni traveled to Tunisia in June when the president of the European commission, the executive of the European Union, signed an agreement with the Tunisian government that promised economic aid in exchange for helping prevent departures.
More recently, Meloni reached a bilateral agreement with Albania to establish two centers in the Balkan countries to process asylum applications from migrants rescued by the Italian Navy, coast guard and border police boats.
Albania’s Constitutional Court suspended the agreement pending review, although Prime Minister Edi Rama said he hoped it would go ahead.
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