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Italian authorities have refused to let 35 migrants disembark a charity rescue ship at Sicily, as the new far-right-led government attempts to cracks down on people-smuggling from the Mediterranean.
Giorgia Meloni’s new government is allowing only those identified as vulnerable to disembark from four ships docked in the port of Catania.
The Humanity 1 has been ordered to vacate the port after disembarking 144 rescued migrants – which included women with children, more than 100 unaccompanied minors and people with medical emergencies.
The captain refused to leave the port ‘until all survivors rescued from distress at sea have been disembarked,’ said SOS Humanity, the German charity that operates the ship. The vessel remained moored at the port.
Later today, a second charity ship arrived in Catania, and the vetting process was expected to be repeated with the 572 migrants aboard the Geo Barents ship, operated by Doctors Without Borders.
Two other boats run by non-governmental organizations remained at sea with no immediate change in status.
New Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is targeting non-governmental organizations, which Italy has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea. The groups deny the claim.
While the new government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants.
Italian authorities are refusing to let 35 migrants disembark a charity ship docked in Sicily (Pictured: Migrants asleep on deck of NGO rescue ship ‘Ocean Viking’)
More than 100 migrants deemed vulnerable were let off the NGO ship The Humanity 1, but the rest were not and the ship was ordered to leave
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s new government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants
Three more ships full of migrants are waiting to dock in Sicily and the vetting process was expected to be repeated
Humanitarian groups and two Italian lawmakers who traveled to Sicily protested the selection process as illegal and inhumane.
‘Free all the people, free them,’ Italian lawmaker Aboubakar Soumahoro said in an emotional appeal directed at Meloni from the Humanity 1 rescue ship, calling her government’s new policy ‘inhuman.’
The passengers have faced ‘trauma, they have faced everything that we can define as prolonged suffering, a hell,’ said Soumahoro, who spent the night on the ship.
He said neither translators nor psychologists were on hand during the selection process, and that many of the migrants had suffered torture at the hands of traffickers as they traversed Libya, where they boarded unseaworthy smugglers’ boats. Many were from rural areas of Gambia.
‘Their fault is to speak another language. Their fault is to have another color,’ Soumahoro said, accusing the government of using the migrants to distract from more pressing issues, including high energy prices.
After the Humanity 1, carrying 179 rescued passengers, disembarked women, children and more than 100 unaccompanied minors, Italian doctors then identified people needing urgent medical care after the ship’s doctor refused, said SOS Humanity spokesman Wasil Schauseil. Thirty-six people were declared non-vulnerable were not permitted to disembark, prompting one to collapse and be taken away by an ambulance.
‘You can imagine the condition of the people. It is very devastating,? he said.
SOS Humanity considers all of the passengers vulnerable after being rescued at sea, and deserving of a safe port under international law.
‘The survivors remaining on board the Humanity 1 are in an emergency condition,’ the charity said. ‘They fled inhumane conditions from Libya and have since had to endure over two weeks at sea. ‘
The new Italian government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is targeting non-governmental organizations, which Italy has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea
Charity SOS Humanity considers all of the passengers vulnerable after being rescued at sea, and deserving of a safe port under international law
The Norway-flagged Geo Barents, carrying 572 migrants, arrived in Catania on Sunday afternoon. Migrants on board cheered as the ship entered the port and later the Red Cross brought food and water to the ship.
Two other ships carrying rescued migrants remained at sea. The charity ships say the rescued migrants are sleeping on floors and decks, spreading respiratory infections and scabies as food and medical supplies are nearing depletion. Some migrants have been on the ships for more than two weeks.
The German-run Rise Above, carrying 93 rescued at sea, sought a more protected position east of Sicily due to the weather, but spokeswoman Hermine Poschmann said Sunday that the crew had not received any communication from Italian authorities.
Poschmann described cramped conditions on the relatively small 25-meter (82-foot)ship.
The Ocean Viking, operated by the European charity SOS Mediteranee, with 234 migrants on board, remained in international waters, south of the Strait of Messina, and did not receive instructions to proceed to a port, a spokesman said Sunday. Its first rescue was 16 days ago.
The confrontational stance taken by Meloni’s government is reminiscent of the standoffs orchestrated by Matteo Salvini, now Meloni’s infrastructure minister in charge of ports, during his brief 2018-2019 stint as interior minister.
In a Facebook video, Salvini repeated his allegations that the presence of the humanitarian boats encourages smugglers.
Nongovernmental organizations reject that claim, saying they are obligated by the law of the sea to rescue people in distress and that coastal nations are obligated to provide a safe port as soon as feasible.
Two men, believed to be migrants, seen smiling and waving out of Manston immigration centre in Kent as protesters chanted outside the site
Protesters from the campaign group Stand Up To Racism and Freedom of Torture gathered for the Stop Manston Now demonstration. One woman held a sign which read ‘Braverman out now! Refugees welcome here’
Migrants were seen smiling and waving through the windows of Manston immigrant centre today as angry protesters gathered demanding the Home Secretary to resign.
It comes as the Government admitted this morning that there was still overcrowding at the crisis-hit, former RAF base in Kent.
Demonstrators from the campaign groups Stand Up to Racism and Freedom from Torture braced the rain this afternoon and stood outside the site, demanding for it to be closed.
People, believed to be migrants inside Manston, looked out at the demonstrators below.
One video showed a man holding a baby and woman huddled at one of the centre’s window. The woman was seen waving a handkerchief at the Shut Manston Down protesters who cheered, rang bells and beeped horns in response.
Other activists held up signs that said ‘no human is illegal’ and ‘you are welcome’. Footage from the protest showed a man holding a baby and a woman waving at the protesters from inside the centre
Benny Hunter, who shared the video, said: ‘We can see a detained mother, father and baby inside their detention prison. They are waving. We say: Free them.’
Other footage showed a group of people from inside the centre standing on what appears to be a balcony outside, waving handkerchiefs in the air.
Angered activists chanted ‘Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho detention centres have to go’ and ‘stop Manston now’ while holding up umbrellas to shield themselves from the pouring rain.
Freedom from Torture placed a large, mocking placard on the fence of the centre which read: ‘HM Government. Suella Braverman: Centre for Cruelty to Refugees.’
Campaigners from the group Freedom from Torture placed a placard on the fence of the centre, imitating an official sign from the Government. It read: ‘Suella Braverman. Centre for Cruelty to Refugees’
Protesters braced the rain to hold up a large banner outside the centre that read ‘the enemy doesn’t arrive by boat – he arrives by limousine’
A man, woman and baby look out from Manston immigration centre onto demonstrators. The woman is then seen waving a white handkerchief as protesters cheer
It comes days after the Home Secretary Suella Braverman was ridiculed for arriving at the immigration centre in a RAF Chinook (pictured)
Other protesters, stood out in the rain this afternoon, helped up a long banner reading: ‘The enemy doesn’t arrive by boat – he arrives by limousine.’
It comes days after the embattled Home Secretary, who is under mounting pressure to get a grip on the Channel migrant crisis, was ridiculed for arriving at the immigration centre in a Chinook helicopter.
The military vehicle costs approximately £3,500 an hour to operate.
The protest comes after it was revealed 4,000 people being detained for weeks at the site that was only meant to hold 1,600 people for a few days at a time
Police officers arriving at Manston immigration centre as the Shut Manston Now protest continues
A sign outside Manston immigration centre reads ‘no one is illegal’
Other signs being held up at the protest said ‘Braverman out now’ and said ‘no human is illegal’.
People, who are believed to be migrants, peered out of the centre’s windows this afternoon grinning at the demonstrators below.
Today cabinet minister Oliver Dowden admitted the ‘totally deplorable’ Channel migrant crisis had ‘gone too far’ and the Government ‘needed to do more’.
Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden today admitted the ‘totally deplorable’ Channel migrant crisis had ‘gone too far’ and the Government ‘need to do more’
Demonstrators from the campaign groups Stand Up to Racism and Freedom from Torture braced the rain this afternoon and stood outside the site, demanding for it to be closed
Mr Dowden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the Government hoped to have the Manston facility back under capacity this week as more people are removed.
He also insisted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was ‘totally committed’ to dealing with the migrant crisis and had been having ‘meeting pretty much every day’ about the issue since he entered No10.
Speaking on the Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday how, he added: ‘It is unacceptable that we now have a situation with almost 40,000 people crossing the Channel.’
A protester holds up an ‘every child matters’ sign outside Manston immigration centre in Kent
The situation came to a head after it was revealed that at one point last week there were 4,000 people being detained for weeks at the site that was only meant to hold 1,600 people for a few days at a time.
The overcrowded conditions has led to outbreaks of diphtheria, MRSA and violence.
This morning Mr Dowden said there were ‘about 1,800’ people within the centre, insisting the Government was ‘continuing to make good progress’ but admitted it was still over capacity.
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