Almost 100 people who were rescused at sea have reached dry land after disembarking from a German NGO’s ship in southern Italy after they were blocked from reaching the country by its new right-wing government, led by Giorgia Meloni.
Mission Lifeline posted a video to Instagram of its vessel, Rise Above, coming into port in Reggio Calabria, a coastal city separated from Sicily by the Strait of Messina. The “odyssey of 89 passengers and nine crew members on board seems to be over”, the video was captioned.
The group issued a subsequent statement which said the passengers represented all of the remaining rescued people the ship was carrying.
The group had been stranded at sea for days while it waited for the Italian government to assign the 80ft freighter a port after it entered Italian waters over the weekend without consent due to rough conditions at sea.
The Brothers of Italy government has taken a hard line with NGOs operating private migrant rescue ships in the central Mediterranean Sea. It has instructed the ships to ports and allowed only passengers considered vulnerable to get off.
Italian authorities insist the boats must then return to international waters with the remaining migrants so the countries whose flag the ships fly will take them in.
Mission Lifeline spokeswoman Hermine Poschmann said she did not know why the Rise Above was allowed to disembark all its remaining passengers, which three other humanitarian ships are currently unable to do.
The group quoted Italian news reports as saying the Italian government had determined the Rise Above was a “distress case at sea” but Ms Poschmann said at no time did the group ever declare an emergency or mayday.
Italy‘s interior minister Matteo Piantedosi laid the groundwork to close Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships by drafting measures contending that the aid groups were violating procedures by not properly coordinating their rescues.
Ms Poschmann said Mission Lifeline followed the same search and rescue procedures as the other ships.
Two NGO-run boats are docked in Catania, in Sicily, one with 35 people whom Italy will not allow to get off, the other with 214 people.
The captains of both ships have refused to leave, saying that under international law all people rescued at sea are vulnerable and entitled to a safe port.
With agencies
