Italy must guarantee migrant rescues -Council of Europe

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 14 - Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović called on Rome to guarantee migrants in distress at sea are rescued in a report released Thursday based on her visit to Italy from June 19 to 23.
    "Italy should ensure that sufficient and adequate search and rescue capacity can be deployed to provide timely and effective assistance to people, including to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, in distress at sea," the report said.
    Mijatović also said Italy should "repeal of legislation and policies that hamper" the operations of NGO-run search-and-rescue ships in the southern Mediterranean.
    Under a decree approved at the start of the year, 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.
    They risk big fines and the impoundment of the ships if they fail to comply.
    The government has also started to allocate ports of safety to NGO ships that are some distance from their position after making the rescues.
    The Italian government is trying to discourage NGO-run ships, saying their activities encourage small boats carrying asylum seekers to attempt the hazardous crossing from North Africa to Italy.
    Mijatović said cooperation activities that directly or indirectly lead to returns to Libya should be suspended, in view of the grave and systematic human rights violations taking place there.
    She said cooperation with other countries, in particular Tunisia, should be conditional on comprehensive human rights safeguards, and no returns should take place without a proper individual assessment. The Commissioner also warned of the lack of adequate human rights safeguards in recent the Memorandum of Understanding Rome agreed with Tirana to set up Italian-run migrant centres in Albania.
    The report raised issues concerning journalists and the legal protection of LGBTI people too.
    The Commissioner recommended the decriminalisation of defamation, with Italian journalists sometimes subjected to criminal charges in relation to their work, and the broadening of legislation against discrimination, hate crime and hate speech to cover the rights of LGBTI people. (ANSA).