Italy gives safe port to vulnerable refugees on board Humanity 1
Italy has allowed a rescue ship carrying 179 refugees and migrants to enter a port in Sicily and begin disembarking children and sick or “vulnerable” people, according to rescue workers and an Italian legislator.
But the far-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continued to refuse on Sunday to respond to requests for the safe harbor from three other ships carrying nearly 900 people and stranded in nearby waters amid rough weather.
The Humanity 1, run by German charity SOS Humanity, said it was told by Italian authorities to come to the port of Catania to land minors and people needing medical attention, but challenged the government’s move to distinguish “vulnerable” refugees and migrants, saying all of the people on board were rescued at sea and that alone qualified them for a safe harbour under international law.
taly’s only Black legislator in the lower chamber, Aboubakar Soumahoro, met the Humanity 1 at the Catania port and decried the government’s closure of ports to non-governmental organisation (NGO) ships as a “shame”.
“Right now, in the port of Catania there is a selective disembarkation underway,” Soumahoro said on Twitter. “Worn bodies of castaways already exhausted by cold, fatigue, trauma and torture are considered objects by the government of Giorgia Meloni.”
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said on Friday that the Humanity 1 would be allowed in Italian waters only long enough to disembark minors and people in need of urgent medical care. The measure was approved after Germany and France each called on Italy to grant a safe port to the refugees and migrants, and indicated they would receive some of the asylum seekers so Italy would not bear the burden alone.
No such provisions have been offered to the other three ships. The Norway-flagged Geo Barents, carrying 572 refugees and migrants, and the German-run Rise Above with 93, entered Italian waters east of Sicily this weekend to seek protection from storm-swollen seas, but without receiving consent from Italy or a response to repeated requests for a safe port.
Agencies