The Italian authorities today assigned the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms to the port of Livorno (north) to disembark the 117 immigrants rescued the day before in the central Mediterranean.
The organization denounced on its social networks that the assigned port is 650 miles away (about 950 kilometers) from its current position, while the island of Sicily is much closer, about 250 miles. Open Arms considered the assignment of this port as a “punishment”.
“There are four days of navigation, three times further than the closest safe port in Sicily, which should be, according to international conventions. Suffering always falls on the most vulnerable,” lamented Open Arms.
On board it has 117 immigrants, including 31 minors, the youngest is 3 years old, and 25 women, rescued in international waters of the Central Mediterranean and coming from Sudan, Eritrea and Libya.
The government of the far-right Giorgia Meloni has criticized these humanitarian organizations, which it accuses of promoting the migratory phenomenon. And in recent times it has chosen to assign them distant ports for the disembarkation of rescued immigrants with the aim of easing the situation in the reception centers in the south, where they used to take them before.
