This was established by the European Commission of the 27 countries of the Union through a spokesperson “There is a legal and moral obligation to save lives at sea and there is a legal obligation for member states to do so regardless of the circumstances that led people to get into trouble ”.
The authorities must “facilitate the disembarkation”, the spokeswoman added.
Thus, he reneged on the Italian decision of separate the “vulnerable” castaways. of two ships of humanitarian organizations docked in the port of Catania, in Sicily, of “healthy” immigrants who were banned from disembarking and ordered to continue on board to be shipped to the countries flying the flags of both German and Norwegian ships.
The conflict that arose in the southern Mediterranean, populated by emergency boats and fugitives, has become even more complicated. This was reported by the “alarm telephone” operating in the area, monitored by the authorities 500 shipwrecked people were at the mercy of the waves of the Mediterranean which is estimated to add more than one hundred thousand in all of 2022.
The government is tough
This was announced three days ago by the new Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni it would only allow you to get off “Vulnerable” illegal immigrants (children, frail women, the sick) embarked on boats belonging to NGOs, the humanitarian organizations that patrol the Mediterranean collecting castaways, in a safe harbor.
That said, two ships that entered the port of Catania underwent the new treatment. From the German-flagged ship “Humanity 1”, 144 immigrants were able to disembark, considered by Italian doctors to be “vulnerable” and 35 considered “healthy”. they were forbidden to leave the ship.
They must remain on board and the ship, commanded by Captain Joachim Ebelin, 49, of Bremen, according to the authorities must leave immediately. But Ebellín affirmed that “the law of the sea and international laws They require me to take the castaways we rescued to a safe haven. That’s what I have to do and I don’t move until the last refugee comes down ”.
The same thing happened later with the second ship docked at the port of Catania. It is the Geo Barents, with the Norwegian flag and 570 shipwrecked. 357 have been accepted as “vulnerable” and 213 are to remain on the ship.
The captain of the Norwegian ship also refused to leave the port with the “healthy” castaways. The commanders of the two ships have been informed that they will suffer fines of 50 thousand euros each if they do not leave “as soon as possible”.
Problems
On the Geo Barents ship, three of those sentenced to remain aboard jumped into the water to escape the port, but were immediately arrested and returned to the ship.
It was also reported that the ship has developed a “significant infection”. A spokesman said “the situation is dramatic”.
On the German ship “Humanity 1”, the first to arrive at the Catalan port, those who were forced to remain on the ship began a hunger strike this afternoon.
Two more ships await permission to enter a nearby safe harbor. On the Norwegian-flagged relief ship Ocean King 234 castaways travel. Illegal immigrants are assisted by a Franco-German NGO. The other ship is the Rise Above, smaller and with the German flag. She carries 90 shipwrecked on board under the responsibility of the German NGO Mission Lifeline.
The Minister of Infrastructure, with a special mandate on ports, Matteo Salvini, accused the inks this afternoon, stating that illegal immigrants “pay about 3 thousand dollars each to human traffickers”.
“That money then becomes drugs and weapons”, added Salvini, who in 2018 and 2019, as Interior Minister of a government led by the now opposition Giuseppe Conte, acted heavily against NGO boats. Salvini is still the protagonist of four trials, including for kidnapping.
While the thousand immigrants live many adventures, more than nine thousand have been rescued in the past four weeks from Italian ships or arrived in Italy with small boats, as the Tunisians do every day.
The clamor of the conflict between the government and the humanitarian ships is strong but the traffic represents less than 10% of the total.
For a decade the Italians ask for efficient agreements in the European Union to be reasonably distributed to illegal immigrants, but the resistance of countries with fewer problems has always been strong. Especially those close to the sovereign ideology of Giorgia Meloni herself.
Hungarian leader Vicktor Orbán congratulated the new Meloni government “for defending European borders”.
But it was the sovereign countries of the Vicegrad Group, which make up, in addition to Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakiathose who were most against it accept the proportional distribution of immigrants crossing European borders.
PB
Source: Clarin
