Molteni hails detention of two migrant rescue ships

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 3 - Interior Ministry Undersecretary Nicola Molteni on Saturday hailed the decision to place two migrant rescue vessels run by non-governmental organisations under administrative detention in relation to alleged violations of new rules on search and rescue at sea.
    "The government does not delegate border control and search and rescue to private, foreign-flagged, foreign-funded vessels," said Molteni, a member of the right-wing government coalition partner League, in Instagram in relation to Friday's order concerning the Mare*Go and Sea Eye 4, both operated by German charities.
    If the same ships break the rules again they will be seized, he added.
    On Friday the coast guard issued two separate administrative detention orders against the Mare*go and Sea Eye 4 in relation respectively to the decision to disembark 36 migrants and refugees allegedly rescued in the Maltese search and rescue (SAR) zone on Lampedusa rather than in the assigned port of Trapani on grounds it was too far away; and the decision to carry out two distinct rescue operations respectively involving 17 and 32 people in the Libyan and Italian SAR areas before heading to the Abruzzo port of Ortona on Italy's Adriatic coast, assigned to the ship after its first rescue.
    Under new rules governing search and rescue operations by private vessels in the central Mediterranean introduced by the government at the start of 2023, NGO vessels carrying rescued migrants and refugees are required to navigate directly to the assigned port after the first rescue without remaining in the search and rescue area. (ANSA).