Two NGO migrant rescue ships
that had been at the centre of the latest standoffs with
outgoing interior minister and anti-migrant league party leader
Matteo Salvini on Monday landed their migrants in Sicily and on
Lampedusa.
The German NGO migrant rescue ship Eleonore on Monday entered
the Sicilian port of Pozzallo near Ragusa.
The ship, run by the NGO Mission Lifeline, has over 100
migrants on board.
It declared a state of emergency on board and ignored an
Italian entry ban issued by Salvini.
Police and coast guard officials were waiting on the dock for
it to tie up.
Ragusa prosecutors opened into Eleonore's arrival.
They instructed flying squad officers to carry out
investigations to see if any criminal offences had been
committed.
The Ragusa prefect, meanwhile, is to decide on possible
sanctions for breaching a security decree's ban on entering
Italian waters.
Salvini's closed ports policy may be changed by the likely
new 5-Star-Democratic Party government.
Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans said Monday it had
just heard that the Italian coast guard would allow the last 31
migrants aboard the Mare Jonio ship to land at Lampedusa for
health reasons.
"Their odyssey is over and a bit of humanity can be glimpsed
on the horizon," it said.
"Welcome to Europe!"
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Nicola Zingaretti on
Monday told Premier-designate Giusepe Conte that a "radical"
change was needed from the last government's closed ports policy
led by Salvini.
Another NGO migrant rescue ship, the Alan Kurdi, is still
engaged in standoffs with Salvini.
But amid the high-profile standoffs with the NGOs,
lower-profile so-called 'ghost landings of migrants directly
from north Africa, not picked up by NGO ships, have been
continuing apace.
"What is happening in these hours in the Mediterranean, amid
continuous landings on our coasts and inhuman bans, confirms
that the immigration policies of the last few months have not
solved anything," said Zingaretti.
"I once more ask premier(-designate) Conte to immediately
tackle the situation of persons blocked at sea in conditions of
humanitarians emergency and, obviously, we continue to ask that
we should gear up for a radical turnaround in the policies on
these issues."
The PD's likely government partner the anti-establishment
5-Star Movement (M5S) have said they will not change Salvini's
policies.
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