AbroadNearly 360 migrants sailing on the rescue ship Geo Barents have set foot in Sicily, aid organization Doctors Without Borders (AzG) announced. The Italian authorities allowed only women, children and injured people to leave the MSF ship, which has 214 other migrants on board.
The right-wing government in Rome that took office last month only wants to let the needy ashore. The rest must return to international waters, according to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.
Italy believes that the countries where the ships are registered are responsible, in the case of the Geo Barents it is Norway. Aid groups say Italy’s policy violates international law.
The European Commission has urged stranded migrants to be taken to safety. Two more ships carrying migrants are trapped off the coast of Sicily. One of them has 230 migrants on board and the other has had to evacuate four people due to medical necessity.
Germany
The captain of German Humanity 1, which still has 35 migrants on board, refuses to leave the port of Catania until all the castaways are safe.
Italy does not give them permission to go ashore, after some of the people on board (children, women and men with medical problems) were allowed to do so over the weekend after more than a week of waiting. The German aid organization SOS Humanity has announced it will take legal action against Italy.
The German Foreign Ministry said on Monday that rescuing civilians at sea is a moral and legal duty. The government in Berlin is in talks with Rome about the legal status of the refugees.
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