There were indications this week that the newly-installed
administration of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni could be laying the
groundwork to reinstate limits on NGO rescue vessels. After a controversial period
of virtually closed borders under the direction of then Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini, restrictions had been eased under the previous administration,
with a number of NGO-operated rescue vessels making frequent calls at southern
Italian ports to offload migrants taken from boats that had got into
difficulties when trying to traverse the Mediterranean from North Africa.
PM Meloni has appointed Matteo Piantedosi, a civil
servant who worked under Salvini during the latter’s time at the Interior
Ministry, to lead the department. Salvini himself is currently on trial on
kidnapping charges for holding migrants aboard an Italian Coast Guard vessel,
and he also faces a defamation trial for past comments about the female captain
of an NGO rescue vessel.
Piantedosi had served as Salvini’s chief of cabinet
during that period, but he does not face similar charges. He immediately issued
a directive finding that two NGO vessels – the Ocean Viking (IMO
8506854) and the Humanity 1 (IMO 7427518) – might have improperly carried
out rescues without informing the authorities first. The Piantedosi order
suggested that the operations of the two NGO vessels were not “in line
with the spirit of the rules on security and border control and the fight
against illegal immigration.”
Local media said that the directive could be used as a
justification to bar the rescue ships from entering Italian ports.
Because Malta has already barred the NGO-operated rescue
vessels and Libya presents political, health and safety concerns, the NGO
rescue vessels in the Central Mediterranean have typically headed for southern
Italy. This year the two vessels have delivered thousands of rescued migrants
to safety on Italian shores each year, which has raised the cost of reception
and care for the Italian state and has brought back into the media spotlight
wat the right in Italy have termed an immigration crisis.
Piantedosi issued the directive on Oct 25 to inform
Germany and Norway – the flags under which the two vessels sail – of the situation.
The Ocean Viking had on board 200 migrants rescued off
Libya and Lampedusa, with 73 rescued on October 25th.
In a related measure, the Italian government plans to
purchase 14 more fast interceptor boats for the Libyan Coast Guard at a cost of
about $6.5m, according to Italian media. The militia-linked Libyan Coast Guard
uses patrol vessels and EU-supplied intelligence to interdict migrant crossings
and bring the survivors back to detention facilities.
However, neither the EU and UN consider Libya a safe
destination for vessels to offload rescued individuals, given that they will
likely be subjected to “conditions calculated to cause suffering and the
desire to utilize any means of escape.”
According to UN officials and NGOs, the means of escape
typically includes a payment in cash or services to detention centre staff and
their affiliates, who can arrange another attempt at a boat crossing.
