Italy’s center-right government is again grabbing international headlines by virtue of enforcing its immigration laws.
On Friday, June 2nd, the Italian coast guard announced that it had detained two German charity-run vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.
The vessels’ crews, the coast guard explained, had failed to abide by a new law, passed by Italy’s parliament last February, which stipulates that after each rescue, rescue ships have to request access to the nearest port and sail to it, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress.
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni’s government has defended the legislation on the basis that, with restrictions imposed on rescue ships, migrants are less incentivised to make the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean from northern Africa.
One of the ships detained on Friday, the MareGo of the NGO bearing the same name, said it had picked up 37 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Although authorities had commanded its crew to land at the Sicilian port of Trapani, they opted for the island of Lampedusa instead, as it would save them hours.
In a statement, the NGO said that its rescue ship is now “blocked” there for 20 days, and would “likely face a fine” for having broken the new Italian decree of what it called Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s “post-fascist” government.
The Italian coast guard confirmed it had impounded a second ship, the Sea-Eye 4, which it had commanded to dock in the coastal town of Ortona in eastern Italy, carrying 49 migrants.
It had picked up 17 people in the Libyan search and rescue zone, followed by an additional 32 migrants in Italian waters which, since it constitutes more than one operation, is in breach of the new law.
Source: The European Conservative