ZCZC
BFF-47
ITALY-IMMIGRATION-MIGRATION
Italy holds migrant rescue ship as hundreds land
ROME, June 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Italian authorities held a migrant rescue
boat for 12 hours after it brought more than 230 people to a port in south
western Italy following a four-day ordeal on the high seas, an NGO said on
Sunday.
German NGO Sea-Watch said in a statement that their boat Sea-Watch 3 was
held until gone midnight on Saturday after arriving at the port at Reggio
Calabria with 232 people onboard.
Italian police questioned the boat captain for more than four hours,
according to the NGO, and journalists travelling on the vessel were asked to
hand over video footage of the rescue operation, which took place on June 5.
“The political attacks against us are not only endangering us, but those in
maritime distress,” the NGO tweeted. “After 12 hours stuck in port, without a
comprehensible reason given by the authorities, while there were 6 SAR-Cases
on the Mediterranean Sea, we finally set sails to SAR.”
SAR stands for search and rescue operations.
Sea-Watch said police also questioned some of the rescued migrants from the
boat. After being processed by the authorities they are likely to end up in
migrant reception centres.
The holding of the boat comes after Italy’s new anti-immigrant government
pledged to slow down landings and speed up expulsions of migrants illegally
in the country.
“If anyone thinks I won’t move a muscle while we have another summer of
landings, landings and more landings, well that’s not what i’m going to do,”
said new Interior Minster Matteo Salvini from the far-right League party on
Saturday.
Sea-Watch said it had requested help from the coastguard in Malta to send
boats to aid the rescue mission last week but Malta refused.
Salvini has previously lambasted neighbouring Malta for not doing more to
help deal with would-be asylum seekers — a charge Malta has denied.
While Sea-Watch 3 was being held in Reggio Calabria, fellow NGO SOS
Mediterranee rescued 629 people in six separate night-time operations in the
Mediterranean.
The French organisation said that of those saved and brought on board its
ship Aquarius on Saturday night, 123 are unaccompanied minors, 11 are small
children and seven are pregnant women.
They are currently heading north in search of a secure port at which to
dock.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1757 hrs