William Nattrass
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was elected on a pledge to tackle illegal migration to Italy across the Mediterranean. Now data suggests her hardline approach — which has seen another NGO migrant rescue ship impounded this week — is reaping rewards.
The Geo Barents search and rescue vessel, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières, was detained for 60 days after the ship disembarked 191 migrants in Salerno, a port city south of Naples. The ship had carried out a night-time rescue operation in the central Mediterranean after crew members saw people falling overboard from a small boat. Out of the 191 migrants rescued, three are women and 23 are unaccompanied minors.
Meloni and her government maintain that the operation of these foreign NGO rescue ships constitutes a major “pull factor” encouraging migrants to make the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean. Médecins Sans Frontières, meanwhile, claims it has “no choice” but to rescue those in need and that the impounding of the Geo Barents was an “arbitrary and inhumane decision”. The ethics of the activities of NGO rescue ships remain a topic for passionate debate: on Wednesday Pope Francis condemned “those who work systematically and with every means to reject migrants.”
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