Italy Sends MSF Boat With 146 Migrants to Genoa Port
37 people found in distress in the Mediterranean arrive at the the ship Geo Barents, June 6, 2014. Photo: X/ @MSF_Sea
June 7, 2024 Hour: 6:28 pm
PM Meloni has complicated the rescue tasks of humanitarian organizations by sending their ships to distant ports.
On Friday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that the Italian authorities assigned a new port of disembarkation for the ship Geo Barents, which is sailing with 146 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.
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After initially heading to the port of Civitavecchia near Rome, the Geo Barents will need to travel an additional 657 nautical miles so that the “people on board can disembark in a safe place and receive the assistance they need,” MSF said, adding that the migrants were rescued in two operations in the Libyan “search-and-rescue” area.
Currently, the rescued asylum seekers are receiving assistance on board the Geo Barents while they await arrival at their new destination, which the Italian authorities assigned following their “Distant Ports” policy.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration has complicated the rescue tasks of humanitarian organizations by sending their ships to distant ports. In this way, the Italian government hopes to force NGOs to reduce the number of rescues they carry out in the Mediterranean.
Other strategies used by the Italian authorities to slow down maritime rescue operations include keeping humanitarian ships waiting for periods of up to 60 days.
In fact, the Geo Barents was blocked two months ago in the port of Marina di Carrara for 20 days despite a Civil Court in Calabria lifting an administrative blockade that the NGO SOS Humanity’s ship was facing, setting a precedent in these types of cases that occur repeatedly.
So far this year, 21,769 migrants have arrived in Italy, 30,488 fewer than the number of migrants recorded in the first half of 2023, when 52,257 people had already set foot on Italian soil.
Source: EFE
teleSUR/ JF
