A German humanitarian group said its ship docked in southern Italy early Tuesday and disembarked all 89 people on board who had been rescued at sea, ending one migrant rescue saga as three others continued under Italy's new hard-right government.
Mission Lifeline posted videos on social media of the Rise Above docking in Reggio Calabria and said the “odyssey of 89 passengers and nine crew members on board seems to be over.”
The group had made repeated requests to Italy to assign a safe port for the 25-meter (80-foot) freighter after conducting three rescues on Thursday, and said it entered Italian waters over the weekend without consent because of rough seas. Six of the original 95 rescued people on board were evacuated at sea for medical reasons.
The new far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni has taken a hard line with nongovernmental organizations operating private migrant rescue ships in the central Mediterranean Sea, insisting it is the responsibility of the states whose flags the ships bear to take care of the migrants. In recent days it ordered two other ships to ports but allowed only passengers considered vulnerable to get off, leaving hundreds still on board.
Italian authorities insist those boats must return to international waters, but the boats have refused to budge, saying all the passengers are vulnerable and that international law accords them a safe port.
Mission Lifeline spokeswoman Hermine Poschmann said she didn’t know why the Rise Above was allowed to disembark all its remaining passengers. A fourth ship remains in international waters for a 17th day, its requests for safe port met by silence.
Germany-based and -flagged Mission Lifeline quoted Italian news reports as saying the Italian government had determined the Rise Above was a “distress case at sea.” But Poschmann said at no time did the group ever declare an emergency or mayday.
Italy's interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, laid the groundwork to close Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships by drafting measures contending that two of aid groups — SOS Humanity and SOS Mediteranee — were violating procedures by not properly coordinating their rescues. The directive did not include Mission Lifeline. Poschmann said Mission Lifeline followed the same search and rescue procedures as the other ships.
German NGO SOS Humanity on Tuesday confirmed that the 35 people remaining on board the Humanity 1 have submitted fast-track political asylum requests through a court in Catania. It said the condition of the people was deteriorating every day, with some refusing proper meals and growing more distressed.
In desperation, two Syrian men jumped into the sea from one of the ships, the Geo Berents, on Monday, and a third went in after to try to save them, said Doctors Without Borders, which operates the ship. One of the men was taken from the ship by ambulance on Tuesday after getting a fever.
The charity said that the man, identified only as Ahmed, had fled Syria a year ago for Libya, and that he had been subject to abuse and violence in a Libyan prison, where he landed after his first attempt at a crossing was intercepted by the Libyan coast guard.
“He told us that since then he has suffered strong pains in his back due to the violence he suffered,” said Maurizio Debanne, a spokesperson for the aid group.
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