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.
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