Nov. 4 () –
The Italian authorities have assigned this Friday a safe port to a ship of the German NGO SOS Humanity so that the 179 migrants on board, rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, can receive medical attention.
“You will only be able to remain in our territorial waters for the time necessary so that we can see if there is any health or other emergency on board,” explained the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, at a press conference, according to the information agency. DNAKronos news.
The ship, called Humanity 1, which has a German flag, is already heading towards the Sicilian port of Catania. “We have adopted an interministerial decree in accordance with article 1, paragraph 2, of decree law 130 of 2020,” she said.
The head of the Interior has also reported that another smaller ship, with 94 people on board, is heading towards Siracusa. “They informed us that there was an attempted revolt on board, with precarious navigation conditions, so it is heading towards Syracuse,” he explained.
These statements come after Piantedosi himself expressed his refusal to allow the entry of migrants rescued by ships from various NGOs in the Mediterranean and asked that it be precisely the countries of origin of these ships that welcome the migrants.
The tightening of immigration policies by the new Italian government, headed by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, has caused some 1,000 migrants to wait to disembark in a safe port. Rome has appealed to the responsibility of the countries to which the ships legally belong.
The uncertainty of these last few days led SOS Mediterranée to ask France, Spain and Greece for help, so that one of these countries would respond, since 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean on board the rescue ship ‘Ocean Viking’ are waiting still safe harbor.
“Supplies are running out,” warned the organization, which had previously unsuccessfully contacted Italy and Malta. “Strong winds and high waves are expected by the end of this week,” the NGO said in another statement.
Another vessel, the ‘Geo Barents’, from Doctors Without Borders, asks for a safe harbor “immediately” for the 572 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean. “Humanitarian organizations are working at sea because there is no established effective search and rescue system on the part of Europe,” explained a worker from the ship, Anabel Montes.
Since the beginning of 2022, some 1,700 people have disappeared in the Mediterranean, 1,287 of them in the central zone, which is already the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Italian government data indicates that almost 86,000 people arrived by sea in Italy between January and November 2022, of which half are from Tunisia, Egypt and Bangladesh. In the same period of 2021, the figure was around 53,000, while in 2020 it was 28,300.
