Italy fines and blocks MSF ship for 60 days for failing to comply with controversial rescue rules

The Italian authorities have fined and blocked for 60 days the ship of the NGO Doctors Without Borders, the Geo Barents, after it had rescued 191 migrants at sea in recent days in different missions without returning to port, in violation of government provisions on the activity of organizations operating in Italian waters.

The ship arrived on Monday at the port of Salerno (south), where it has been blocked. “This is the third time that our ship has been subjected to this type of punitive measure for fulfilling its legal obligation to save lives at sea,” MSF denounced on its social networks.

The Geo Barents recovered 191 migrants, including three women and 23 unaccompanied minors. According to MSF, several health emergencies occurred on the ship: about twenty cases of scabies and some migrants suffered burns during the crossing. All of them disembarked in Salerno on Monday.

“Any excuse is good enough to stop NGOs and prevent them from saving the lives of people whom Italy and the EU want to lock up in concentration camps at the bottom of the sea or abandon them in the desert,” the NGO said.

The Italian government, headed by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, has complicated the work of NGOs As part of its immigration policy, it targets migrants by, among other measures, forcing them to make the same escape, sending them to very distant ports or detaining ships for up to 60 days if they do not comply with its instructions.

On the other hand, the NGO emergency ship rescued a total of 158 stranded people in international waters three times in just a few hours. “We request the medical evacuation of two people who have been poisoned by fuel. The Italian authorities have organized a helicopter evacuation from Lampedusa, while the safe port they have assigned us is Ancona, which is four days away by sea,” explained Spanish Anabel Montes Mier, mission head of the life support ship.

In recent days, the reception center on the Italian island of Lampedusa (south) housed 900 migrants, more than three times its capacity. According to data from the Italian Interior Ministry, the number of migrants who have arrived on Italian shores so far this year is 40,138, compared to 113,000 in the same period last year.