Mediterranea asks Meloni, Mattarella to 'end war on NGOs'

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 27 - Humanitarian rescue organization Mediterranea on Monday appealed to Premier Giorgia Meloni and President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to "stop the war on NGOs" after a row broke out Sunday over search and rescue operations carried out by ships operated by non-governmental organizations in the central Mediterranean.
    "(Let there be) no more war on NGOs, on civilian rescue ships.
    Let's cooperate to save as many lives at sea as possible," said Mediterranea in a letter. "Let us produce a synergic action, in the face of the imperative to save (lives), that might induce the European Union to come out of its hiding on this issue, and put in place a coordinated rescue mission in view of a summer that promises to be terrible from the point of view of danger at sea," continued the organization.
    The civilian rescue ship Louise Michel, funded by British street artist Banksy, is currently detained in port on Lampedusa after the Italian coast guard claimed it had acted in breach of new laws regulating sea rescue by NGOs and "complicating" the coordination of rescue efforts already underway.
    "It seems absurd, because there are hundreds of people out there in danger while we are stuck here," Louise Michel head of mission Morana Milijanovic told Repubblica in an interview published Monday.
    "And the consequences are clear: more deaths at sea." (ANSA).