NGO asks for assist from three nations to disembark 234 migrants

The European NGO SOS Méditerranée appealed Thursday for the primary time to France, Spain and Greece to assist it discover a secure port to disembark 234 migrants rescued by its ship Ocean Viking. It’s pressing, earlier than the climate deteriorates.

The ocean rescue NGO fears “a powerful wind, excessive waves and a drop in temperature by the tip of the week”, including in a press launch printed Thursday that “provisions are beginning to run out” on board.

Since its first rescue on October 22, SOS Méditerranée has requested, as normal and in accordance with maritime legislation, the authorities of the search space, in Libya and Malta, with out acquiring a response, the director advised AFP. and co-founder of the NGO Sophie Beau, by cellphone Thursday.

She then approached Italy, however the current rise to energy of the intense proper in Rome and the anti-migrant declarations of its leaders go away little hope of acquiring a inexperienced gentle there.

Entry ban

“The Minister of the Inside focused the Ocean Viking in his statements”, recollects Sophie Beau. Matteo Piantedosi has certainly introduced that he has issued a directive warning police forces and port authorities that his ministry is contemplating a ban on entry into territorial waters of the ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée and the Geo Barents of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), which each fly the Norwegian flag, in addition to the German boat of the NGO SOS Humanity.

On Thursday, the 2 ships had not acquired any official communication on such a choice. SOS Méditerranée then turned to the maritime authorities of France, Spain and Greece.

A primary

“That is the primary time that now we have requested them,” defined Ms. Beau, who specifies that the request was made on Wednesday night. Thursday at noon, SOS Méditerranée had acquired no response.

The director insisted: “We’re not asking France to open a port for us, however to assist us discover a answer”, in precedence in Italy or Malta, the states closest to the Viking Ocean, presently in southern Sicily.

Germany for its half despatched a diplomatic “notice” to Italy wherein Berlin signifies that “the civil organizations engaged within the reduction of migrants present an essential contribution to the safeguarding of human lives within the Mediterranean”, in line with a press launch despatched to AFP by the embassy in Rome.

“Saving individuals in peril of dying is the precedence (…). We ask the Italian authorities to [leur] convey assist as quickly as potential”, provides the textual content.

Because the starting of the yr, 1,765 migrants have disappeared within the Mediterranean, together with 1,287 within the central Mediterranean, probably the most harmful migratory route on this planet, in line with the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).

“Pirate Ship”

The brand new Italian government, which had campaigned by promising to “cease the landings”, requires nations whose humanitarian ships fly the flag to decide to welcoming a few of the migrants arriving on their territory by sea.

“If you happen to shuttle between African shores and Italy to move migrants, you might be blatantly violating maritime legislation and worldwide legal guidelines. If then an NGO ship flies the flag of, say, German, the equation is as follows both Germany acknowledges it and takes cost of it, or it turns into a pirate ship,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defined in a ebook to be printed on Friday.

In response to the Italian Inside Ministry, 85,991 individuals arrived by sea in Italy between January 1 and November 2, 2022, half of whom are nationals of Tunisia, Egypt and Bangladesh.

They have been 53,825 final yr over the identical interval, and 28,343 in 2020, two years marked by the Covid.

Nevertheless, the European Fee just lately indicated that solely 112 migrants out of the just about 86,000 who’ve arrived for the reason that begin of the yr might be acquired by two different EU nations (38 in France, 74 in Germany), a really inadequate determine for eyes of Rome.

Solicited Thursday by AFP, the Italian Ministry of the Inside didn’t reply. Minister Matteo Piantedosi was Matteo Salvini’s chief of workers when the latter blocked NGO ships at sea in 2019.

Salvini, he inherited the infrastructure portfolio within the authorities led by Ms. Meloni, a place that offers him management of Italian ports. “The place ought to a Norwegian boat go? It is easy, in Norway”, tweeted the pinnacle of La Ligue on Thursday.

This text has been printed mechanically. Sources: ats / afp