Two ships with hundreds of forced migrants are allowed to enter Italian territorial waters, but are unable to dock to land displaced international persons.
The Humanity 1 ship, owned by the German NGO SOS Humanity, carries 179 people, while the Geo Barents, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is carrying 572 migrants, all of whom were rescued in search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean. world’s deadliest.
“After asking and obtaining permission from the Italian authorities, Geo Barents entered Italian territorial waters due to bad weather conditions,” said Juan Matías Gil, MSF’s head of mission. The ship has been waiting for a safe harbor to be determined for anchorage for about 10 days.
“The last request to the Italian authorities was made at 22:27. [horário local] from yesterday [4]As for the others, we are still waiting for a positive response,” he added.
These two ships will now be able to receive humanitarian aid, although they do not have the authority to dock and disembark those displaced from the new Italian government led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Two other humanitarian vessels are also awaiting a safe harbor designation, but sailing in international waters in the Mediterranean: Ocean Viking of the 234-man SOS Méditerranée and Rise Abobe of the 90-man Mission Lifeline.
Italy even requested that Germany, where the Humanity 1 and Rise Abobe ships are registered, and Norway, the flag country of Geo Barents and Ocean Viking, to meet the immigrants, but only Berlin was available.
“Maintenance obligations are the responsibility of the flag state,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, appointed by the far-right leader Matteo Salvini, current Infrastructure Minister and deputy prime minister, said on Saturday. Said.
International rules of navigation mandate that persons rescued at high seas be taken to the nearest safe harbor.
“We have cases of skin and respiratory infections, and the suffering is increasing because of the lack of space and the long time spent at sea,” said Ricardo Gatti, an MSF activist at Geo Barents. “The situation is critical,” he added.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 87,400 forced migrants have already landed in Italian ports in 2022, an increase of 61% compared to the same period last year.
The main countries of origin are Egypt (17,700), Tunisia (16,900), Bangladesh (12,300), Syria (6,400) and Afghanistan (6,100).
However, many of these displaced people continue their journey to the north of the European Union to countries such as Germany, which recorded 114,000 asylum requests in 2022 versus 37,000 in Italy.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), around 1,300 people died or went missing while trying to cross the central Mediterranean in 2022, averaging more than four deaths per day.
source: Noticias
