Where will the Ocean Viking end up docking? Hundreds of migrants remain stranded this Wednesday off Italy on humanitarian ships, including that of the NGO SOS Mediterranean, the Ocean Viking. The fate of the latter has triggered tensions between France and Italy, which have increased in recent hours.
• Several NGO boats stranded in international waters
After days or even weeks at sea, three ambulance boats rescuing migrants trying to cross between the North African and European coasts have been granted permission to dock at Italian ports. But Rome only allowed some of the survivors to go down to the dock, much to the chagrin of humanitarian organizations.
The “Rise Above”, a ship of the German NGO Lifeline, was able to bring down on Tuesday morning in Reggio Calabria, at the southern end of the Italian boot, all 89 migrants on board. Six migrants were evacuated on Sunday for medical reasons.
The German-flagged ship Humanity 1, of the NGO SOS Humanity, was authorized to dock this Sunday in Catania, Sicily, to disembark 144 people, mostly women and minors. But Italy turned away 35 adult men. The Geo Barents, a Norwegian-flagged Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) ship, also docked in Catania on Sunday night: 357 people were able to disembark, including children, but another 215 were denied entry.
The refusal to accommodate all passengers on these ships “endangers them and violates Italy’s human rights obligations,” the NGO Human Rights Watch estimated on Tuesday.
International and European law “guarantees the right to request asylum and prohibits collective expulsions,” he recalled. Italy’s new government, the most right-wing since World War II, has vowed to take a hard line on immigrants.
• Italy thanks France
The Ocean Viking, owned by the European NGO SOS Méditerranée, which picked up 234 migrants, did not, however, receive the green light to dock in Italy, along with which it was still sailing on Tuesday.
It is this Wednesday in international waters “between Sicily and Sardinia,” the director general of the NGO, Sophie Beau, said on BFMTV.
“Faced with the deafening silence from Italy”, SOS Méditerranée said it had asked France on Tuesday to assign a safe port to the Ocean Viking which “should reach international waters near Corsica on November 10”.
“This extreme solution is the result of a critical and dramatic failure of all the member states of the European Union and associated states to facilitate the designation of a safe place,” the NGO insisted in its press release.
In the evening, the new far-right Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, thanked France, which, according to her, agreed to receive the Ocean Viking in one of its ports.
“We express our deep appreciation for France’s decision to share the responsibility for the migratory emergency, which has so far fallen on the shoulders of Italy and some other Mediterranean states, by opening ports to the ship Ocean Viking,” he wrote in a press release. . release.
• France asks Italy to “play its role”
The French government denounced on Tuesday night the “unacceptable behavior” of the Italian authorities that is “contrary to the law of the sea and the spirit of European solidarity”, a French government source said.
“The ship is currently in Italian territorial waters, there are extremely clear European rules that have also been accepted by the Italians who are, in fact, the first beneficiaries of a European financial solidarity mechanism,” government spokesman Olivier Véran added. Franceinfo on Wednesday.
He considered “unacceptable” the “statements” of the Italian government and its “refusal to let this ship dock.”
“We still have a few hours of discussion left and, in any case, we are still at this stage,” he added, but vowed that “no one will put this ship at even the slightest risk, however obvious it may be to those on board.” .
• Corsica offers to host the Ocean Viking
Faced with this impasse, Gilles Simeoni, president of the Executive Council of Corsica, announced on Twitter on Tuesday night that the island was “ready, if necessary, to temporarily host the Ocean Viking in one of its ports.”
This Wednesday on BFMTV, Gilles Simeoni deplored that the current “confrontation” between the French and Italian governments “is developing to the detriment of the health, and perhaps the life, of hundreds of people who are in a state of anguish.” .
“Our position is dictated by the duty of humanity, by urgency. We cannot, when there are people suffering and in absolute anguish a few tens of kilometers from the Corsican coast, to look the other way”.
In its press release, the NGO SOS Méditerranée reports “a drastic deterioration in the physical and mental health of women, children and men stranded” on the Ocean Viking. Several have been there for 19 days and “some have begun to express their intention to throw themselves overboard out of desperation,” according to Sophie Beau.
“There is a respiratory infection that has spread among the survivors” and “they have no more hope because we have no perspective to give them,” he also argued on our antenna.
Source: BFM TV
