Italy has blocked the Open Arms ship of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms for twenty days after it landed 195 migrants in the port of Marina de Carrara. The sanction is produced for carrying out several rescues when it was sailing to this port in the northwest of the country, something that is prohibited by the government decree on immigration promoted by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
The NGO, which has also received a fine of 10,000 euros, has regretted that this is happening after its humanitarian vessel has responded to several requests for support from the Italian coast guard in the last month, overwhelmed by the high flow of boats in the Central Mediterranean. According to data from this Tuesday from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, so far this year 105,483 people have disembarked in Italy, compared to the 51,328 who had arrived in the same period of 2022.
“First they ask you for help to carry out dozens of rescues because the Coast Guard has no fuel, but then they apply the “Meloni Decree” that limits rescues to one,” lamented the founder of Open Arms, Oscar Camps, in a message on their social networks.
According to Open Arms, during Mission 103 their ship was found among dozens of vessels in danger on the high seas, for which the Italian coast guard urged them to intervene and provide support, carrying out seven rescue operations in a single day, always coordinated by the Italian coast guard that had the boats stopped due to lack of fuel.
In the last mission, and after having rescued 26 people, Rome indicated the port of Carrara, four days away. When they had set out, the Alarm Phone migrant assistance service warned them of two boats in danger to the south of where they were, and “after the lack of responses from the maritime coordination center,” they decided to carry out the investigations. two other rescues, arriving at port with 195 people.
The actions of Open Arms go against the current decree of Meloni, which obliges the NGOs to head to port after a single rescue and also to sail for days to locations far from the Sicilian Channel, alleging the saturation of the centers of the island. On Monday, the Italian authorities also blocked the Aurora humanitarian ship, owned by the German NGO Sea Watch, for 20 days. In this case, the punishment was for disembarking 72 immigrants on the island of Lampedusa.
According to Open Arms, “humanitarian vessels are at the mercy of arbitrary and totally unconstitutional elections, which is why they are sometimes called upon to serve as the Coast Guard, other times on the contrary, they are subject to sanctions and administrative blockades” .
