The new regulation of the Rome Ministry of the Interior, which was presented by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening, calls for immediate assistance and prohibits the transfer of migrants from one civilian ship to another.
At the last government meeting of the year, a package of measures concerning migration and the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Mediterranean was adopted. The decree will enter into force with its publication in the Italian Gazette in the coming days. The details of the legislation will be worked out by the parliament.
Luca Ciriani, the minister responsible for relations with the parliament, foreshadowed the content of the package of measures in a statement to RAI1 public television.
He said that the decree, which aims to stop illegal immigration, aims to regulate the activities of non-governmental organization (NGO) ships transporting migrants with "restrictions and sanctions".
"Italy cannot be the only destination for migration from North Africa. NGOs cannot operate without rules (..) the Minister of the Interior wants to lay down clear rules, in case of violation of which sanctions will come into effect. I think this is what a serious country should do," said Luca Ciriani.
Matteo Piantedosi previously indicated that he wants to introduce a new code of conduct for civilian ships active in the Mediterranean before the end of the year.
.According to the current practice, there are dozens of ships in the sea between Libya and Italy, all but two of which are maintained by foreign NGOs, which transport the people taken on board almost exclusively to the shores of southern Italy.
According to the draft of the Ministry of the Interior, only those ships that, after taking the first group on board, request the designation of a safe port from the Italian authorities and depart for the designated location, can dock in Italian ports.
The provision considers it unacceptable that civilian ships announcing rescue wait for days in order to collect as many people as possible. Transferring groups from one civilian ship to another is also a disqualifying factor for the Italian authorities. All this does not refer to a rescue operation, but to organized migration, according to the reading of the Ministry of the Interior.
Among the new security measures are the seizure and fines of up to fifty thousand euros for vessels that violate the regulations.
Rome also wants the identification of international asylum seekers to begin on ships with foreign majesty markings in order to speed up possible transfers. Matteo Piantedosi has never hidden his view that those arriving by civilian ships should be received by the country of the organization operating the ship.
The arrival of the ship Ocean Viking with 113 people on board is expected in the port of Ravenna on Thursday morning. The ship of the French organization SOS Mediterranee has been transporting people to the Italian coast since 2015: this November, the ship first went to the port of Toulon in France, then embarked on another rescue journey, and now it has returned to Italy.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, more than 102,000 people have arrived on Italian shores since the beginning of the year until Wednesday evening. At the same time last year, their number was over 66,000.
MTI
Cover photo: MTI/EPA/Italian Red Cross/Yara Nardi
