The Siracusa Port Authority has issued a ban on any unauthorized vessel from "navigating, anchoring, or stopping" in the Bay of Santa Panagia, a half-mile from where the ship run by the Sea-Watch NGO is anchored with 47 rescued asylum seekers aboard. The ordinance specified that the "presence of and/or navigation by other vessels around the (Sea-Watch vessel) could create problems regarding public order and public health".
On Sunday, Nicola Fratoianni, national secretary of the Italian Left party, accompanied by MP Stefania Prestigiacomo of Forza Italia, MP Riccardo Magi of the +Europa party, and the Mayor of Syracuse, used a rubber dinghy to reach the Sea-Watch and went aboard.
Prestigiacomo said the group, which also included a cultural mediator, an attorney, and a psychiatrist, "rented a private rubber dinghy" on Sunday morning "after two days of having been denied access to board".
On Sunday, Salvini tweeted that he isn't changing his mind regarding the closure of Italian ports to migrant-rescue vessels.
In a speech on Monday in Avezzano, where he was campaigning for the candidate for regional governor, Salvini said the MPs "violated health and hygiene regulations" by boarding the vessel.
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