Migrants disembark in Italy after rescue boat defies ban

ROME - Dozens of shipwrecked migrants disembarked in Italy early on Sunday after their rescue boat docked on the island of Lampedusa, the second vessel in a week to defy efforts to stop them by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

About 41 people were finally allowed to step off migrant rescue charity Mediterranea's Italian-flagged Alex, which arrived at the port on Saturday in an overnight operation that saw the ship temporarily seized by authorities.

The boat's captain Tommaso Stella is being investigated for allegedly aiding illegal immigration, according to the Italian news agency Agi.

It is the second vessel in just over a week to defy Salvini's attempts to block Italian ports to rescue ships.

A third boat that had also been waiting off Lampedusa, the German charity Sea-Eye's vessel Alan Kurdi carrying 65 migrants, was sailing toward Malta on Sunday, even though it has not received permission to enter Maltese waters.

The charity said it could not "wait until the state of emergency prevails" in a message on Twitter.

"Now it has to be proven whether the European governments stand by Italy's attitude. Human lives are not a bargaining chip," it added.

Salvini last month issued a decree that would bring fines of up to 50,000 euros ($57,000) for the captain, owner and operator of any vessel "entering Italian territorial waters without authorization".

After the Alex reached port, Salvini said that he would raise the maximum fine to 1 million euros.

"I do not authorize any landing for those who couldn't care less about Italian laws and help the people smugglers," he tweeted late on Saturday.

Mediterranea said it had sailed to "the only possible safe port for landing", citing "intolerable hygiene conditions aboard" in a tweet on Saturday.

Authorities on Lampedusa in late June seized a rescue ship belonging to German aid group Sea-Watch, which had forced its way into port with dozens of rescued migrants on board, and arrested its captain Carola Rackete.

An Italian judge subsequently ordered her freed, saying she had been acting to save lives, a decision which sparked Salvini's ire but may have encouraged the Alex crew.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wrote a letter to Salvini asking him to rethink his policy, sources close to the German government said.

"We cannot be responsible for boats with people rescued from shipwrecks on board spending weeks on the Mediterranean because they can't find a port," Seehofer wrote.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 07/08/2019 page11)