In the port of Catania, Italy’s new right-wing government is currently demonstrating how it intends to deal with private sea rescuers in the future. And everything indicates that she will rely on polemics and toughness – similar to four years ago, when Matteo Salvini of the Lega was interior minister and practiced a policy of closed ports. Much looks like a new edition.
The ship Humanity 1, owned by the German NGO SOS Humanity, is now docked in the Sicilian city. It had previously waited two weeks in vain for a safe harbor to be assigned. Humanity 1 had made 21 inquiries without receiving a response. Only when a storm broke out over the weekend and the life of the 179 emaciated migrants was in danger was the ship given the right to dock behind the breakwaters. In Sicily, however, only those people who the Italians say are “fragili”, i.e. weak and fragile, were allowed on land: the sick and traumatized, unaccompanied minors, mothers with small children. The medical inspectors found 144 whom they considered “fragili”, they were evacuated. 35 men had to remain on board. According to a decree from Rome, Humanity 1 should have to leave Italian waters with these 35 people.
The helpers consider this passage to be illegal and refer to European law. According to this, all refugees who reach European soil can apply for asylum here. Italy illegally selects refugees and arbitrarily pushes people away, criticize the helpers. The 572 people on Médecins Sans Frontières’ Geo Barents, which is also due to dock in Catania, are now to undergo the same selection process.
The government thinks that the country under whose flag the ships are sailing should take care of it
Italy’s new interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, argues somewhat differently than Salvini, but essentially the line is the same: Italy against the NGOs. The non-party former prefect of Rome, who is close to the Lega, was Salvini’s cabinet chef when he was interior minister. Piantedosi says it is not Italy that has to deal with the migrants who are rescued from distress by foreign organizations on the route through the central Mediterranean, but rather the country under whose flag the ship is sailing: In the case of Humanity 1, that would be Germany. The ship is, said the minister, like a German island in the Mediterranean, so asylum applications should be made on board and sent directly to Germany. Italy does not feel responsible.
This interpretation can be attacked in several respects: legally, politically, morally. But Italy’s right has long been wedged with the NGOs, much of it is propaganda. However, the impression remains widespread among Italians that their partners in the European Union have long been left alone with the flow of migration along this route. The demand for a revision of the Dublin Agreement remains unheard: it stipulates that a refugee must apply for asylum in the country where he first set foot on European soil. In the case of boat people, these are almost always countries on the Mediterranean.
If you accuse the Italians of being inhuman and selfish on this issue, they counter that, to date, several European countries have refused to participate in a systematic mode of migrant distribution. Don’t let yourself be taught.
Piantedosi justifies the closure of the ports with a legislative decree from 2020. It says that Italy can restrict or prohibit stops in national waters or the passage of private ships if there are indications that order and security in the country would otherwise be endangered. Well, how great will Italian judges then assess the danger that a few hundred tired migrants pose to a large country? As a reminder, Salvini is still on trial for preventing a Spanish ship from entering a Sicilian port in August 2019 – for deprivation of liberty.