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Giorgia Meloni’s government has impounded a humanitarian rescue ship for the 23rd time, as Italy steps up its clampdown on irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
Médecins Sans Frontières accused Meloni’s administration of an “arbitrary and inhumane decision” after its civilian search and rescue vessel, Geo Barents, was detained this week in the port of Salerno, near Naples.
Italian authorities ordered the 60-day detention, one of the most significant seizures in an 18-month campaign against humanitarian ships operating in the Mediterranean, on Monday night after Geo Barents disembarked 191 rescued migrants at the port.
Rome accused Geo Barents of endangering lives and failing to provide prompt information to Italian authorities during a night-time rescue in the central Mediterranean early on Friday.
MSF rejects any wrongdoing and said the crew of Geo Barents intervened after seeing a significant number of people falling — or being pushed — overboard from a small fibreglass boat, as a Libyan coastguard vessel approached.
The charity said on Tuesday it had “no choice” but to carry out the rescue.
Meloni’s hard-right Brothers of Italy party has been touting her success at curbing irregular migrant inflows, following a sharp fall in the number of people reaching Italian shores without permission.
However, humanitarian groups such as MSF, Oxfam Italia and SOS Humanity have accused Rome of the “systematic obstruction of civilian search and rescue activities”, which they say is now taking a toll in human lives.
The groups filed formal complaints to Brussels more than a year ago, asking the European Commission to determine whether Rome’s rules were consistent with EU and international law. Brussels is still assessing the arguments.
“They are selling this to public opinion as success, but the price is death and very severe human rights violations,” said Juan Matias Gil, who leads MSF’s Mediterranean search and rescue operations.
At his weekly general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis strongly denounced the refusal of aid to migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. “There are those who work systematically and with every means to reject migrants,” the pontiff said in unusually strong remarks. “And this, when done with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
Just over 39,500 irregular migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared with 112,500 in the same period last year, and 53,400 in 2022, according to Italy’s interior ministry.
“Italy continues to reap the fruits of the work of the Meloni government on the front of the fight against wild clandestine immigration,” Tommaso Foti, head of the Brothers of Italy’s parliamentary delegation, said this month.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the UN’s International Organization for Migration, said the sharp drop in irregular arrivals to Italy had not been matched by an equivalent decline in shipwrecks or drownings that involve small migrant boats.
According to the IOM, at least 1,027 migrants have been lost in the central Mediterranean this year, with 424 confirmed dead and 603 missing. That includes about 70 people, mostly fleeing Syria, Iran and Iraq, who died in a large shipwreck 120 miles off Italy’s southern coast in late June.
“The European sea patrol system is still insufficient,” Di Giacomo told the Financial Times. “This year, the Mediterranean Sea is, in percentage terms, more dangerous than last year.”
Another 13,763 migrants seeking to reach Europe were intercepted and returned to Libya, where they typically face incarceration and human rights abuses, the IOM said.
Shortly after assuming power in late 2022, Meloni’s government issued tough new rules to limit humanitarian groups’ ability to rescue migrants at risk of drowning, and warned that vessels failing to adhere to the restrictive protocols would be impounded.
Authorities have since detained 10 humanitarian search and rescue boats operated by different charities, including one funded by street artist Banksy, for periods ranging from 20 to 60 days. Some boats have been impounded more than once.
According to SOS Humanity, the impounded vessels have lost a total of 480 days at sea for carrying out rescue missions since the start of 2023, not including the latest detention of Geo Barents, its third.
Meanwhile, vessels that do pick up distressed migrants are often directed to far-flung Italian ports to disembark passengers, lengthening their journeys and reducing their time on patrol.
MSF said it would challenge its ship’s “unlawful detention” in court, but typically such cases are only heard months after the boats have been released.
“The government knows very well that the speed of justice is much slower than the administrative measure,” Gil said. “We are losing money . . . and all that time we are locked in port is never coming back.”
Meanwhile, the crew of the MV Louise Michel, the search and rescue vessel funded by Banksy, said on Tuesday it had just rescued 229 people from seven boats in distress in the Mediterranean, after being released on August 7 from its latest 20-day detention.