Italy asked the humanitarian ship Humanity on Sunday to leave its waters with the 35 migrants on board who were not allowed to disembark, but the ship’s captain refuses to comply.
The request arrived at noon, but the captain of the ship, Joachim Ebeling, refused to comply and intends to remain in the port of Catania, in the south of the country, until all the migrants disembark, sources close to the captain told Efe.
The German ship Humanity 1 entered the port of Catania on Saturday night and, after inspection by port authorities, 144 migrants, mostly women and children, managed to disembark, while 35 remained on board.
Those who disembarked were housed in tents in the port city of Catania, in southern Sicily, according to news reports.
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that manages the ship, the German SOS Humanity, appealed before the Court of Rome against the laws approved by the Italian government on migration.
The strategy of the Italian government, chaired by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, is based on allowing the disembarkation of NGO ships only for the most vulnerable or sick, while the rest must be returned to international waters.
The new Italian government launched a battle against the NGO ships, which it accuses of favoring irregular immigration, and closed its ports, as Matteo Salvini, the current vice president, did in 2018.
The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, had advanced that not everyone would be allowed to disembark, but that technical teams would be sent to the ships to “check” the state of need of the shipwrecked and then decide whether or not to accept their disembarkation.
Amnesty International and the Italian opposition have rejected the selective reception of migrants and have warned that it is a violation of international law.
In addition to the Humanity 1, near the Italian island of Sicily there are three other boats with more than 800 migrants saved for days and weeks at sea, suffering the consequences of the cold and exhausted by their journey from the North African coast.
Source: TSF
