Those helping migrants must respect law-CEI chief

(ANSA) - Perugia, August 10 - Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of Italian bishops conference CEI, said Thursday that those helping migrants must stick strictly to the law to ensure they are not seen as being accomplices of human traffickers. "I reiterate the clearest rejection of any form of modern slavery in the face of the aberrant plague of human trafficking," Bassetti said. "But I also lay claim with equal vigor to the need for an ethic of responsibility and respect of the law. "Precisely to defend the interests of the weakest, we cannot run the risk - not even for pure idealism that dramatically transforms into naiveness - of giving the pretext of collaborating with the traffickers of human meat, even if this is false".
    Some politicians have criticised the work of NGOs involved in migrant rescues in the Mediterranean, saying they are encouraging traffickers.
    Sicilian prosecutors recently seized a ship run by a German NGO in a probe over alleged aiding of illegal immigration.
    The NGO in question refused to sign a code of conduct at the interior ministry for organizations involved in rescues.