NGOs encouraging migrant-boat departures - Piantedosi

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 25 - Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Wednesday reiterated the government's assertion that NGO-run rescue ships are encouraging small boats carrying asylum seekers to attempt the hazardous crossing from Libya to Italy.
    The government is trying to discourage the activities of NGO-run ships and has started to allocate ports of safety to them that are some distance from their position after making the rescues.
    It has also passed a code of conduct under which NGO-run ships must immediately request the authorities assign them a port of safety after making a rescue, rather than staying at sea to help other people.
    "The presence of the NGO ships, combined with the climatic conditions, have got dinghies going from Libya again, including the most fragile vessels," Piantedosi said regarding the Geo Barents ship, which was told to go to the northern port of La Spezia after picking up 69 people on Tuesday in waters off Libya.
    "We complain about this, they complain about the long voyages.
    "A shipwreck and a rescue are occasional events. Systematic searching, which encourages departures, is different.
    "The presence of the NGOs has got dinghies, not well-structured boats, making departures. This is the phenomenon that we have registered".
    The Geo Barents, which is operated by Doctors Without Frontiers (MSF), said Wednesday that it conducted a new rescue after heading north and had picked up 61 more people, taking the total on board up to 130. (ANSA).