Ships: This time, Salvini pushes too far for his own government

B A domino effect is very similar to a pyramid scheme: some find themselves at the bottom and have to bear the burden of others. Thus, if the borders of Northern Europe and Central Europe are more and more controlled and more and more escape routes are closed by domino effect to the south, more and more people live in Italian or Greek hotspots. The new right-wing Italian government Lega and the five-star populist movement want to end it.

Matteo Salvini, Italian Minister of the Interior and Head of the Xenophobic Lega, served his Italian attack Sunday afternoon, as usual on Twitter and Facebook He also wanted to "block" the Italian ports for ships of international missions. The Irish warship "Samuel Beckett" had already arrived with 106 people on board in the port of Messina in Sicily. The ship belongs to the military mission "Sophia" of the European Union (EU). In the future, Italian ports will not only be a taboo for relief vessels of humanitarian organizations, but also for European ships with survivors.

He will address this issue at the meeting of European Ministers of the Interior in Innsbruck this week. "Unfortunately, the Italian governments have signed agreements over the past five years, so that all these ships will land immigrants in Italy," Salvini wrote. "With our government, the music has changed."

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Salvini wants the uncompromising securing of the Schengen external borders decided by European leaders at the recent European summit see forced. His obvious intention: due to the decreased chances of being rescued and disembarking somewhere in Europe, migrants should be prevented from escaping and the economic models of traffickers should be destroyed. Malta is becoming more and more hostile to private rescuers, bearing the risk of losing their lives by banning all reconnaissance flights off Libya.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), they are dying more refugees than ever on the road from the central Mediterranean to Malta and Italy. One in seven migrants is losing their lives while in the first half of 2009, before the measures were strengthened, it was one of the 19 and one of the previous year L & # 39; 39; International Organization for Migration estimates that since 2015, at least 13,459 people have participated in the escape across the Mediterranean drowned.

The EU is irritated by Salvini's attack, even though she does not want to make any statement. Brussels Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas looked visibly annoyed. "It's not our job to comment on the comments of others," he said. "We will not do that, we have nothing to do with the whole problem." The spokesperson for migration, Natasha Bertaud, explained some basic facts. After all, Italy's refusal is so delicate because it involves missions that run the country itself

For example, since 2015, Italy is in charge of "Sophia", a military crisis management operation aimed at combating smuggling of people in the southern Mediterranean between Italy, Tunisia and Libya. According to the EU's mandate, Italy was to badign a port to all incoming ships, but not necessarily in their own country, the spokeswoman said. Only Italy depends on the help of France, Malta, Greece or Spain. The debates of one day, until the lifeboats "Aquarius" and "Lifeline" are found, are not a good omen.

However, the protests against Salvini's hard line came directly from the ranks of the governing coalition. The Secretary of Defense Elisabetta Trenta of the Five-Star Movement put Salvini in his place: he was not responsible as Minister of the Interior of the ships involved in the EU missions who arrive in Italian ports.

discussed or even changed at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of the Interior in Innsbruck. The leader of the five-star movement, Luigi Di Maio, blamed the cabinet colleague on the radio: as long as the EU mission will apply, ships will have to land in Italy. In the future, they want to negotiate that ships also call to ports in other countries – but at the bargaining table.

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The "Sophia" mission decided by the EU Council has been running since April 2015. It was in the previous months Hundreds of dead in the Mediterranean. At the time, the scale of refugee flows not being predictable, Italy has declared itself ready to take over the rescue missions ashore.

In the first half of 2017 alone, more than 93,000 refugees came to Italy. "Ships, everyone on the Italian Coast Guard ships and private rescuers.The government of the time wanted to block an extension of the mission, but gave in at the last minute.Now," Sophia "will run until 2018. Since 2015, 150 tugs have been arrested and 500 of their boats seized.

Salvini's recent campaign to build effective propaganda for the media and ads often without legal basis. Also applies to the locking of ships by non-governmental organizations However, no private rescue ship currently operates in the Mediterranean The former head of the Immigration Department, Mario Morcone, today director of the international refugee organization CIR, is indignant: The new attack on the EU mission is "a serious blow to the European dialogue".