Italy on Friday assigned safe harbors to three migrant rescue ships due to bad weather, the government said on Saturday. According to him, however, this is not a “flip-flop” by the executive on humanitarian NGOs operating in the Mediterranean.
The Geo Barents, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) boat, should dock Sunday morning in the port of Salerno (south) to disembark 248 migrants rescued during several operations in recent days. The German ship Louise-Michel arrived on its side on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday with 33 migrants on board.
Finally the Humanity 1, boat flying the German flag of the NGO SOS Humanity, must reach the port of Bari (south-east) in the next few hours after having rescued 261 people.
Due to bad weather
“On immigration, no about-face,” said a source from the Italian Interior Ministry on Saturday. The ministry “gave consent to the entry of the vessels because bad weather is approaching and navigation conditions would have quickly put those on board at risk,” she added.
These are the first ships to be welcomed by Italy after its refusal in November to let hundreds of rescued migrants disembark and taken care of by several humanitarian ships, including the Geo Barents.
Under pressure from the EU in particular, the government of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had agreed to disembark the most vulnerable survivors while continuing to refuse entry into its ports to the Ocean Viking, ship of SOS Mediterranean, eventually hosted by France.
Sharp rise
According to the Interior Ministry source, Rome continues to denounce “the provocative and risky actions” of NGOs that “favor the entry into Italy of economic migrants who have no right to enter and stay in Italy”, according to she.
This year, Italy has seen a sharp increase in entries into its territory by sea. the same period of 2021 and 2020, years of the health crisis.
A large majority of these migrants are rescued by the Italian coast guard, but Rome has strongly criticized the rescue operations of ships chartered by NGOs, accused of creating a draft.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp