Italy faces court challenge after blocking migrant ship

Rome  — A German charity operating a migrant rescue ship said on Monday it would go to court to try to overturn efforts by Italy’s new right-wing government to prevent some of the people it had saved from the sea coming to land.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s two-week-old administration has moved swiftly to impose a crackdown on immigration, refusing to let four charity boats bring ashore migrants, only letting those it says are vulnerable to disembark.

Two boats, the German-flagged Humanity 1 and the Norwegian-flagged Geo Barents, were given permission to dock in Catania, Sicily, at the weekend and allowed to let off about 500 migrants, mainly women and children, leaving about 250 still onboard.

The government has ordered the ships to return to sea, but their captains have so far refused. Two other non-governmental boats, the Ocean Viking and the Rise Above, are still at sea off Sicily carrying about  300 migrants.

German charity SOS Humanity has said it will shortly present a suit to a Rome court appealing a government decree that refused to a designate a safe port to the rescue boats. It is also appealing in a Sicilian court that those migrants left aboard should be allowed to enter Italy and seek asylum.

Meloni’s government has accused the charity ships of acting as a de facto taxi service for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. It is threatening €50,000 fines if the boats refuse to leave port.

The charities, including France’s Doctors without Borders (MSF), which operates the Geo Barents, say they play a vital role saving lives in one of the world’s most deadly migration routes and accuse Italy of breaking international law.

“The partial and selective disembarkation, such as suggested in the Italian government’s decree, is heinous and can’t be considered lawful according to maritime conventions,” MSF said on Monday.

France, Germany and Norway have all called on Italy to take in the migrants, however Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, has praised Rome’s new, hardline approach.

“Finally! We owe a big thank you to Giorgia Meloni and the new Italian government for protecting the borders of Europe,” Orban wrote on Twitter at the weekend.

Pope Francis also entered the debate on Sunday, saying EU member states should share responsibility for taking in migrants and not leave frontier countries such as Italy to face the problem alone.

On Monday, European Commission spokesperson Anita Hipper said member states had a “legal and moral duty” to save lives of people, regardless of the circumstances that led them to sea. Italy has seen a sharp increase in migrant arrivals this year, with some 87,000 people landing so far in 2022 against 54,000 in the same period last year, official data showed. Most of them were from Egypt and Tunisia.

Reuters