[ad_1]
Rome / Madrid (AP) – In the midst of the debate over port bans in humanitarian organizations, the renewed blockade of a refugee relief vessel in the Mediterranean has been avoided.
The ship of the Spanish organization Proactiva Open Arms is authorized to travel with the survivors to the port of Barcelona. The Spanish government allowed them to bring the 60 refugees there, the organization said.
Italy had refused access to the "Open Arms". Malta has also declared itself ineligible. There must be this Monday, the German captain of the rescue ship "Lifeline" in court.
In front of the court in Valletta, allegations against Claus-Peter Reisch are first presented, said the organization's legal adviser, Neil Falzon, the German press agency Sunday. We do not know if Reisch himself will comment.
Italy and Malta accused him of ignoring the orders of Rome to have wrecked migrants taken by Libyans. In addition, the lifeboat should not have been properly registered. The Dresdens reject the allegations and emphasize the obligation to take people in distress.
Italian Interior Minister Lega's right, Matteo Salvini in particular, is optimistic about NGOs, which he considers as aids to human traffickers. The ship "Aquarius" of Medecins Sans Frontieres and SOS Mediterranean and the "Lifeline" of the organization Mission Lifeline Dresden had already refused entry to hundreds of people on board. The "Aquarius" had to evade Spain the "Lifeline" was allowed to dock in Malta.
Even the "Open Arms" might "forget to arrive in an Italian port," Salvini said. The ship is in Libyan waters, the nearest port is Malta and it flies the Spanish flag. "Stop the mafia from trafficking in human beings: the less people lose, the less they die." Italy wants the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrants and bring them back to civil war.
But despite all the blockades, migrants continue to scrape towards Europe because they are fleeing torture and severe ill-treatment in Libya. This also shows the latest refugee accident, by the end of last week about 100 people could have died – including three babies.
Photos show the Libyan Coast Guard bringing back the bodies of babies from the boats ashore. According to the Coast Guard, all children were under one year old. The images recall the fate of young Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi, who was abandoned in 2015 on a beach in Turkey. "When everyone saw Alan's photo, it was a movement of outrage and solidarity," wrote the spokesperson for the UN refugee agency. , Carlotta Sami. "But more deaths have come to the dead." Instead of coordinating the recovery of migrants, EU Member States have significantly reduced the chances of rescue at sea.
Proactive Open Arms still wants to pursue and pick up migrants off the Libyan coast. According to the Spanish media, the ship could land on Wednesday in Barcelona . Mayor of the city, Ada Colau, thanked the organization via Twitter and said that Barcelona was looking forward to the ship with open arms. It was good that the rescuers had not engaged in an inhuman and cruel European policy.
In Italy, for the first time, a senior politician of the five-star ruling movement spoke for migrants. "I would not close ports, immigration must be spoken with intelligence and with heart," said Saturday the Speaker of Parliament, Roberto Fico, during a visit to a reception center migrants in Pozzallo, Sicily.
The Five Stars are in fact the main partner of the populist government with the Lega. However, the boss of Lega Salvini currently dictates with xenophobic statements the course in Italy and thus enters opinion polls more and more consent. He also said quickly that Fico did not speak for the government but for himself.
Source link
