The ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms has been sanctioned by the Italian authorities with a 20-day blockade and a fine of 10,000 euros for having hindered a Libyan patrol boat during the rescue of a migrant boat, also ignoring the instructions of the National Center of Maritime Rescue Coordination.
The ship arrived this Saturday in Crotone, in the Calabria region, to disembark the 57 migrants it had rescued last Friday and there it was subjected to an inspection and fined based on the decree of the Ministry of the Interior that regulates the work of the organizations who rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, Italian media reported.
In the Calabrian port, the police listened for more than six hours to the ship’s commander and crew to denounce a series of non-compliance that violated the decree known as Piantedosi, after the surname of the Minister of the Interior of the far-right Government of Giorgia Meloni.
According to these media, the Italian authorities received a report from Libya that the Open Arms had hindered one of their patrol boats during the rescue of 45 people who were on a boat in the waters of the Libyan rescue zone, an intervention that It had also been denied by the Italian National Maritime Rescue Coordination Center.
Although the 45 people were finally intercepted and returned to Libya by the naval unit of this country.
The Piantedosi decree has tightened the rules for rescuing migrants in the central Mediterranean, which is why NGO boats are continually being blocked and fined.
The ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms arrived in Crotone this Saturday, after due to bad weather the Italian authorities decided to grant a closer place to disembark the 57 rescued migrants.
The Spanish NGO had asked the Italian authorities for another port closer to Brindisi (south), which is at least another day’s sail away, because it was facing waves of up to four meters and winds of 35 knots.
The Open Arms rescued 57 people this Friday, 5 of them minors, in a new mission after leaving this Wednesday from the port of Salerno (south) where they had arrived after another rescue.
This assignment of ports far from the rescue zones responds to a new strategy of the Italian Government of the far-right Giorgia Meloni so that the ships must leave the rescue zone for days and also represents greater expense for NGOs.
The Government assures that this is a measure to alleviate the pressure of the arrival of migrants to Sicilian ports.
