Antonino Galofaro, with AFP
modified to
6:12 p.m., November 05, 2022
Italy, under pressure to let the humanitarian boats that have rescued hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean land, ended up granting a safe port on Friday, November 4 to the ship of the German NGO SOS Humanity. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced during an evening press conference in Rome that the Humanity 1 ship was heading for Catania. As soon as he arrives in the harbor of this Sicilian port, doctors will come on board to check the state of health of the 179 migrants he has rescued in the Mediterranean.
“He will be able to stay in our territorial waters for the time necessary for us to examine all the emergencies on board. We will accept all people for example because they are minors, or because, according to what we know from the media, this are pregnant women or with young children, people who have a fever”, assured Antonio Tajani. But “all people who do not meet these criteria will have to be escorted out of our territorial waters by the ship,” he warned.
More than 1,000 migrants
More than 1,000 migrants trying to reach Europe are currently on rescue ships at sea, including 234 on the Ocean Viking of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, which operates in partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross, and 572 on the Géo Barents of Médecins sans frontières (MSF). Added to these are those on board the Humanity 1 and the Rise Above of the Lifeline organization (94 migrants rescued). A “revolt” on board would threaten the Rise Above which could also be authorized to approach the Italian coasts, suggested the Italian minister.
As of Thursday, November 3, Germany had sent a diplomatic note to Italy, asking “the Italian government to provide rapid assistance” in view of the humanitarian emergency. Faced with the deteriorating weather at sea, the NGO SOS Méditerranée, headquartered in Marseille, had indeed urged France, Spain and Greece to help it find a port of disembarkation as quickly as possible. . So far, twenty requests for safe ports have been made by the NGO, without success. France, however, declared itself ready last Friday to welcome women and children.
“We have told our Italian friends, together with our German friends, that we are obviously ready to take some of the women and children, as we have done previously,” said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. on the RMC/BFMTV channels. “I want to thank France for this openness. It’s an important signal,” reacted the head of Italian diplomacy.
“The sea is getting bigger and bigger”
SOS Méditerranée also welcomed France’s announcement but “any additional day of waiting could have serious consequences”, warned the director and co-founder of the NGO Sophie Beau. On the Ocean Viking, which is off Sicily, “rescued passengers are calm, although some are starting to show signs of seasickness. Today it’s exactly two weeks since the first rescue operation” , explained to AFP a photographer present on board.
“The sea is getting bigger and bigger. It’s raining and the rain should increase in the evening,” he testified. With the arrival of the extreme right to power in Rome, Italian leaders have multiplied anti-migrant declarations. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has announced that he has issued a directive warning police forces and port authorities that his ministry is considering a ban on entry into the territorial waters of Ocean Viking and Geo Barents, both under Norwegian flag.
1,765 migrants disappeared in the Mediterranean in 2022
The Italian Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, which acts as the Vatican’s informal diplomatic arm, on Friday called on “Europe, and in particular the countries whose flag NGOs are flying, to find an agreement to relocate asylum seekers “Arrived on Italian soil. But the Norwegian government declined to AFP any “responsibility (…) towards the people on board” on board the ships.
For the director general of the association for aid to migrants France land of asylum, Delphine Rouilleault, on Twitter, an “arm wrestling (…) is undoubtedly a necessary step in order not to let Italy trample the international law”. Since the beginning of the year, 1,765 migrants have disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 1,287 in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous migratory route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 85,991 people arrived by sea in Italy between January 1 and November 2, 2022, half of whom are nationals of Tunisia, Egypt and Bangladesh.