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ITALY-GERMANY-MALTA
Italy seizes migrant rescue vessel, another to disembark
ROME, Sept 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Italian authorities on Monday seized the
charity rescue vessel Eleonore, disembarking the around 100 migrants aboard
after it entered Italian territorial waters despite a ban.
“Now we are in a safe port,” Eleonore’s captain Claus-Peter Reisch
tweeted, before adding “now our ship is confiscated” and inviting
contributions for a new one.
The ship, operated by German charity Lifeline, has been at sea for eight
days waiting for a safe port to dock after rescuing over 100 migrants in
distress while crossing the Mediterranean.
Another rescue vessel, the Mare Jonio, on Monday said it would disembark
its 31 rescued migrants.
“We have just been informed that the Italian coastguard will soon
disembark ‘for health reasons’ the last 31 people on board,” Mediterranea
Saving Lives, which operates the vessel, tweeted.
“Their odyssey is over and a bit of humanity can be seen on the horizon.
Welcome to Europe!” the charity tweeted, with the vessel currently off the
coast of Italy’s southern island Lampedusa.
Charity vessels are currently banned from entering Italian territorial
waters in accordance with the hardline politics of the outgoing League-Five
Star Movement coalition government.
Italy customs officers on Monday seized the Eleonore as part of the
draconian legislation.
Captain Reisch said he headed for Italy as “the situation on board is
life-threatening” because of heavy rain overnight and stormy seas.
The Mare Jonio rescued 98 people in distress off Libya last week, with 67
vulnerable people disembarked to Italy, including women, children and urgent
medical cases, spokesman Luca Faenzi said.
A third vessel, the Alan Kurdi operated by German charity Sea Eye, was on
Monday sailing between Malta and Italy after also being banned from Italian
waters by outgoing far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini.
Salvini, who is being removed from the government after he tried to bring
it down, issued a tough security decree earlier this year which fines rescue
vessels a million euros and provides for them to be seized and their captains
prosecuted if they enter Italian waters without authorisation. Prime Minister
designate Giuseppe Conte is in talks to form a new government without
Salvini.
On Monday, Conte said the he wanted to renegotiate the EU’s so-called
Dublin asylum rules, which stipulate that the country of first arrival must
process asylum seekers.
“We need to resume and develop the negotiations with the European Union to
go beyond the Dublin regulation and finally achieve a European management
system on the immigration problem”, he wrote on Facebook.
BSS/AFP/AU/08:10 hrs