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Italy has a rescue ship docked – but not everyone is allowed to go ashore

A rescue ship from the German organization SOS Humanity with 179 migrants on board is allowed to head for a port in Sicily after waiting for days.

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Italy has a rescue ship docked – but not everyone is allowed to go ashore

A rescue ship from the German organization SOS Humanity with 179 migrants on board is allowed to head for a port in Sicily after waiting for days. The "Humanity 1", which has been waiting for a safe port for almost two weeks, is on its way to Catania, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in Rome on Friday evening. The ship is allowed to anchor there until the migrants on board have been medically examined.

Underage migrants as well as pregnant women, women with small children or refugees suffering from fever are allowed to go ashore, Tajani said. But "all people who do not meet these criteria" have to leave Italy's territorial waters by ship. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said: "We respect the humanitarian needs." He added: "Then we'll see what happens."

Four rescue ships with a total of more than a thousand migrants on board are currently waiting in the Mediterranean to be assigned a safe port. According to their own statements, the sea rescuers of "Humanity 1" rescued migrants in three missions between October 22 and 24 who were in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. Among them are more than a hundred unaccompanied minors. The federal government had asked Italy on Thursday for "quick help" for the rescued refugees.

A new addition was the German "Rise Above" by Mission Lifeline, which rescued 95 boat migrants from distress in the Mediterranean on Thursday. In addition, the "Geo Barents" with 572 and the "Ocean Viking" with 234 people are waiting. Both fly the Norwegian flag. France offered to take in people from the “Ocean Viking”, which runs the French organization SOS Méditerranée.

The new right-wing government in Rome under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sees the flag states as having an obligation. After taking office, Meloni announced that she would block the arrival of immigrants from Africa. Her interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said he could prevent the aid organizations' ships and the migrants on board from coming to Italy.

"We will always guarantee rescue and assistance, but we forbid foreign NGOs to stop in Italian waters," said Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini. The head of the right-wing Lega, to which Piantedosi is close, was Minister of the Interior in 2019 and made headlines with his anti-migration policy.

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