NGOs rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean will have to disembark them in the countries whose flag their boats fly, particularly German, if a better compromise on the status of these NGOs is not found within the framework of the Asylum and Immigration Pact, declared Friday in Malta Giorgia Meloni.
The head of the Italian government rejects an amendment presented by Germany on the status and role of NGOs at the time of the vote on Thursday in Brussels on the reform of the Asylum and Immigration Pact. The text was approved by the Twenty-Seven but Italy, which said it was surprised by the late submission of the German proposals, expressed reservations and asked for a period of reflection.
“We cannot play solidarity with the borders of others”
This amendment is “a step backwards” and “we are therefore proposing another amendment under which the country responsible for welcoming migrants transported on an NGO ship is that of the flag of this ship”, explained Giorga Meloni to the press on the sidelines of a summit of the Mediterranean countries of the European Union, meeting Friday in Malta to agree their positions on immigration.
“We cannot play solidarity with other people’s borders,” she added. According to information reported by Italian media, the Italian amendment was rejected by interior ministers meeting behind closed doors in Brussels on Thursday.
Berlin in Rome’s crosshairs
Rome accuses Berlin of financing several relief NGOs in the Mediterranean, some of which operate under the German flag. Giorgia Meloni wrote to Chancellor Olaf Scholz this week to express her “astonishment” at these subsidies.
According to a count carried out Friday by AFP on maritime traffic monitoring sites, a ship from the German NGO Sea-Watch is anchored at the port of the island of Lampedusa, and five others are carrying out rescue missions offshore. from the Libyan and Tunisian coasts.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock defended on Thursday the role of NGOs which come to the aid of migrants trying to enter Europe via Italy. “Saving people from drowning at sea is a legal and European obligation,” she stressed.
Three times more shipwrecks this summer compared to 2022
After more than a week of calm linked to bad weather, arrivals of migrants by sea resumed on Friday on the Italian island. Between June and August, at least 990 people were shipwrecked in the central Mediterranean – leaving from North Africa and Turkey to reach Italy and, to a much lesser extent, Malta, most often transiting through Libya -, or three times more than during the previous summer, according to a count published Friday by Unicef, which deplored the transformation of this sea into a “cemetery for children and their future”.
Some 11,600 “unaccompanied minors” attempted to travel to Italy between January and mid-September aboard makeshift boats, or 60% more than over the same period in 2022, the agency told AFP. of the United Nations for Children.
NGOs contributing to this influx?
The executive of Giorga Meloni, who came to power a year ago defending a resolutely anti-migrant program, believes that the presence of humanitarian ships at sea contributes to their influx. NGOs argue that they recover less than 10% of people making the dangerous crossing, with the vast majority arriving either on their own or by being picked up by the coast guard or the Italian Navy.