After Italy imposed a 20-day operational ban on the rescue ship “Geo Barents”, the operators – Doctors Without Borders (MSF) – complained about persecution by the Italian authorities. “Italy is looking for excuses to block us while people are dying at sea,” said Juan Matias Jil, head of mission aboard the Geo Barents.
MSF plans to appeal the ban on operations. The move is “a quest designed to stop rescue ships,” Jil said. “They want to prevent us from working in the areas where we are most needed,” said the head of the mission.
MSF must also pay a €10,000 fine for allegedly failing to provide all the information requested by the Italian authorities. The “Geo Barents” brought 48 rescued refugees to Ancona last week.
Controversial law passed
Rome’s parliament passed a controversial law on Thursday that restricts the operations of rescue ships active in the central Mediterranean region. Under the new law, after a rescue operation in the Mediterranean, ships must request access to a port and proceed there “immediately”, rather than remaining at sea and looking for other migrant boats in distress.
Until now, NGO-operated vessels used to spend several days in the central Mediterranean, regularly conducting various rescue operations before heading north towards Italy.
The Spanish rescue ship “Aita Mari” arrived at the port of Ortona, in the center of the Italian Adriatic, last night. 40 people traveling off the coast of Lampedusa were rescued by the rescue ship of the humanitarian organization Salvamento Maritimo Humanitario (SMH). Among those rescued are women and children.