The German NGO SOS Humanity, responsible for the humanitarian ship Humanity 1, will resort to the courts with the aim of reversing the decree of the Italian Government of Giorgia Meloni that allows selective landings, the new migratory strategy of Rome that consists of only letting the vulnerable migrants, while the rest are forced to remain on board ships and return to international waters.
It is something that has already happened during Matteo Salvini's turbulent period as Minister of the Interior – he is currently being prosecuted for having prevented the Open Arms from disembarking – but that is happening again only two weeks after the new Executive led by the Brothers of Italy took possession. In his first migration crisis, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, who was Salvini's chief of staff during that stage, has refused to offer a safe port to a thousand migrants rescued on four humanitarian boats and has only allowed two to dock. of them, the Humanity 1 and the Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders, to let some of the rescued off and order the rest to leave.
Both ships have refused to back down and yesterday, at a press conference, SOS Humanity announced that it will file an appeal against the government decree before the regional administrative court of Lazio, whose capital is Rome. His lawyer also said that they were going to present another urgent appeal before the civil court of Catania to demand the right of the 35 who were still on board to enter and request asylum in Italian territory, as the 144 who disembarked in the first place had done. Faced with his refusal to leave the port of Catania, the captain of the Humanity 1, Joachim Ebeling, had to sign a document that threatened a fine of up to 50,000 euros if he did not comply with the orders to leave the port. The German government warned that it was "important" that everyone disembark and receive medical attention.
The tension is increasing. On Humanity 1, a good part of the 35 men who have been prevented from landing began yesterday to refuse food. Although there is still no talk of a hunger strike, only five of them agreed to eat normally at noon. On the Geo Barents, where 214 people remain on board, three men jumped into the sea out of desperation to swim to land. They were overtaken by the port authorities, who took them to the dock, but refused to return to the ship.
“We are seeing panic attacks among survivors. In addition to physical effects such as skin infections, which is quite serious. The situation in terms of vulnerability, at least psychological, is obviously still in force," lamented the head of operations aboard the Geo Barents, Ricardo Gatti.
There are two other ships in similar situations: the German Rise Above, with 89 migrants –six have been evacuated for medical reasons, including two women who were unconscious–, which was assigned the port of Reggio Calabria yesterday; and the Norwegian Ocean Viking, of the French NGO SOS Méditerranée, with 234. On the German vessel, fights have been recorded due to the lack of response and they were running out of fuel.
