Italy accepts 226 migrants but impounds vessel operated by German NGO

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Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, after relentlessly refusing to accept a boat carrying 226 migrants, now says that he will take them in, but will impound the ship.
Salvini claimed earlier today (June 21) that Mission Lifeline, a German-based "charity organization", pulled immigrants stranded on rubber boats in international waters even though the Italian Coast Guard gave orders to let Libya rescue the boats.

Transport Minister Toninelli said he called on the Netherlands earlier in June to acknowledge the ship, because it was supposedly carrying the Dutch flag, and accused Lifeline of acting “outside international law.”
Toninelli appeared to have changed his mind hours later, saying that it’s too dangerous for a boat with that many people to travel all the way to the Netherlands.

“We will assume the humanitarian generosity and responsibility to save these people and take them onto Italian coastguard ships."

From the Times of Malta

Italy appeared to relent on Thursday after at first refusing to accept 226 migrants on board a German charity rescue ship, saying later in the day it would take them in but would impound the vessel.

Anti-immigrant interior minister Matteo Salvini initially said the Dutch-flagged ship Lifeline should take the people it plucked from the Mediterranean to the Netherlands and not Italy.
But transport minister Danilo Toninelli, who oversees the coastguard, later said it was unsafe for the 32-metre vessel to travel such a great distance with so many people on board.

"We will assume the humanitarian generosity and responsibility to save these people and take them onto Italian coastguard ships," Toninelli said in a video posted on Facebook.

Earlier this month Salvini pledged to no longer let charity ships bring rescued migrants in Italy, leaving the Gibraltar-flagged Aquarius stranded at sea for days with more than 600 migrants until Spain offered them safe haven.

The Dutch government denied responsibility for the vessel, something Toninelli said Italy would investigate. The Italian coastguard would escort Lifeline "to an Italian port to conduct the probe" and impound the ship, he said.
Also on Thursday, the German charity Sea Eye which operates another Dutch-flagged ship, the Seefuchs, said in a statement it was ending its sea rescue mission after the Dutch government told them that it was no longer responsible for the vessel.


The crew of the ship operated by Mission Lifeline, a charity based in Dresden, Germany, had spotted migrants in two overcrowded rubber boats in international waters early on Thursday.

They were told by Italy that Libya's coastguard was coming to get them, but decided to rescue the migrants because they would not have been safe if taken back to Libya, a spokesman for the charity said.

 

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NGO Accused Of Breaking Rules Says Human Lives Are Being Gambled

The offer by the Italian government to accept all of the 226 migrants on board but to impound the vessel "Lifeline" once it arrives at an Italian port has apparently been turned down by the German charity "Mission Lifeline".

The ship is currently at a position of 40nm SW off Malta. On Friday, Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said Malta should take in the migrant vessel and arrest its crew.

That leaves the German NGO with the option to either make it back to Libya and hand over the migrants to the Libyan Coast Guard, or have their crew arrested in Malta or their ship impounded in Italy.

The Africans on board the vessel are reduced to being pawns in the game. They have probably spent all of their money to human traffickers in Libya and are now practically hostages of these self-important rescue merchants who will not allow their ship being taken from them and therefore have to stay in international waters.

In a statement, the NGO said it is unacceptable that again political statements are made at the expense of people in maritime distress and in direct violation of applicable guidelines.

"With the EU summit on migration taking place tomorrow, the European community is asked to stop the gambling with lives at sea and to provide a solution immediately. Again, civil society has to step in where states fail to take their responsibility. It is of highest priority and importance that the civil rescue fleet should not be made responsible for the very problem it is there to respond to. That now even merchant vessels are kept hostage in this responsibility vacuum is incomprehensible."

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of Malta delivered supplies to the vessel.

Read more at The Times of Malta

Italy has no right to dictate to Malta migrant obligations

Migrant standoff continues at sea

1,000 migrants on seven boats - Italy wants the returned to Libya

 

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Maltese Government plans action against NGO captain

Malta appears ready to allow the rescue ship Lifeline, stuck in international waters with more than 230 migrants aboard, provided the asylum seekers are distributed among "willing" EU member states.

The ship has been idle off Malta for four days after picking up the migrants between Libya and Lampedusa. Both Italy and Malta had refused to let it in, criticising the captain for ignoring orders to let the Libyan coastguard pick the migrants.

The possible solution to the standoff was broached in discussions on Monday between French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, spokesman Benjamin Griveaux was quoted by Reuters as saying.

 

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Sorry for prematurely hitting the reply button.
The story goes on.

The charity boat Lifeline docked at Malta on Wednesday evening, bringing to an end a saga which had more than 200 migrants stranded at sea for six days.
Permission for the ship to dock at Boiler Wharf in Senglea was given after eight European Union member states agreed to jointly distribute the 234 migrants aboard amongst themselves, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

The operation was coordinated by the Malta Police Force, the Armed Forces of Malta, the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers, the Civil Protection Department, Transport Malta and the Health authorities.

The government said that following an assessment on site by the health authorities, three babies accompanied by their parents together with another three adults were taken to Mater Dei Hospital for further medical check-ups.
The rest of the immigrants will be preliminary assessed at the Initial Reception Centre.

The ship's captain is being interviewed at the police headquarters. Immediately after the interview he will be escorted back to the ship.
The rescue charity tweeted as soon as it made port, saying it arrived and asking for donations for its next rescue missions.

As the ship was docking, right-wing activists unfurled a banner saying "Stop
human trafficking". They also waved Maltese flags.

At one point there was an incident between foreign NGOs and the activists and the police had to intervene.

The Times of Malta

Maltese Prime Minister Dr. Muscat has now ordered an investigation into Mission Lifeline, the NGO running the Lifeline, and the vessel will be impounded by Maltese authorities once it docks in Malta on Wednesday, pending investigation into registration irregularities.

Malta’s government has also noted that the ship was registered as a pleasure craft and therefore should not have been conducting sea rescues in the first place.

Dr Muscat said it appeared the Lifeline might have been operating as a ‘stateless’ vessel, flying a Dutch flag but not, according to Dutch authorities, registered on that country’s ship registry.

Asked how the vessel’s dubious registration had escaped Maltese authorities when it previously docked on the island, Dr Muscat said he had called for a review of national protocol to avoid a repeat of the situation.

Meanwhile Mayor Michael Müller of Berlin told tageszeitung (taz) that the city overnment in Berlin is 'willing to help people who are looking for protection and security'.

I can't imagine these NGO operations mainly existing on donations.

The human trafficking organizations would be out of business pretty quickly, if there were not reliable partners to ship off the human cargo to Europe.

 

[ROEL]

Provided Malta takes in a proportionate number of asylum seekers to their own Maltese population, then send the rest to be distributed also proportionally to other European countries. Start with the British isles. Or if not, send them back to Africa.

 

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NGO migrant boat captain accused of steering an unregistered boat granted bail but cannot leave the country


The migrant rescue vessel captain accused of steering an unregistered boat has been granted bail by a Maltese court.

MV Lifeline captain Claus Peter Reisch, a 57-year old German national, was arraigned under summons five days after the vessel docked at Boiler Wharf at Senglea.

Mr. Reisch stands accused of having steered the ship within Maltese territorial waters without the necessary registration and licence.

In a crowded courtroom packed with members of the local and foreign press, the captain sat at the dock, assisted by a German interpreter, as three Maltese lawyers took up his defence.

At the very start of the sitting, a fourth lawyer, Sicilian Corrado Giuliano, representing Mr. Reisch's NGO, asked for proceedings be conducted in English.
That request was turned down, with magistrate Joseph Mifsud pointing out that the normal procedure was in Maltese and that an interpreter was being provided to assist the accused.

The day after the vessel docked in Malta, the police had spoken to Mr. Reisch. He told them he had been involved in two main rescue operations and had requested safe harbour, with no preference between Malta and Italy.

Inspector Haber said that Dutch authorities had confirmed that the Lifeline was not registered under the Dutch flag. The captain had given police an e-mail issued by the Dutch Economic Ministry stating they knew of the Lifeline and its salvage operation.
However, the Dutch registry of shipping told Transport Malta that the vessel was not registered under the Dutch flag, but merely with a yacht club.

(..) The captain had first presented a mere photocopy of the ship’s certificate without even knowing that the original was locked away on board the vessel.

Inspector Haber presented a copy of the crew list, drawn up by the captain himself, and a copy of the captain’s licence, which only allowed him to navigate power-driven or sailing yachts in coastal waters not beyond 30 nautical miles.

“This yacht had no registration, pleasure boat or otherwise,” was the prosecution's final word.

The Times of Malta (July 02, 2018)


JOINT NGO STATEMENT ON THE GOVERNMENT’S DECISION
TO CLOSE MALTA’S PORTS TO NGO RESCUE SHIPS

Link to pdf file

 

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The Daily Mail reports...

Charities ‘pay people traffickers’. Libyan coastguard’s astonishing claim:
Cash handed to criminal gangs so they ‘deliver’ refugees
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Refugee charities are paying people smugglers to ferry migrants to their rescue boats patrolling off Libya, it was claimed last night.

A senior Libyan coastguard official told The Mail on Sunday he had evidence that aid agencies were stumping up cash for migrants desperate to reach Europe but who cannot afford to pay ruthless traffickers.

Colonel Tarek Shanboor said he had obtained bank details and phone records that proved the charities were making payments to criminal gangs who have put hundreds of thousands of migrants into unseaworthy boats – leading to thousands of deaths each year.

His claim will raise concern because there have long been fears that Islamic extremists could be among the migrants.

Charities patrolling off northern Africa claim they are only there to rescue migrants.

But Colonel Shanboor said aid agencies were now encouraging more and more migrants to make the perilous trip. He claimed he had handed evidence of collusion between charities and traffickers to EU border security officials in Brussels, though he refused to go into detail.

Speaking exclusively to the MoS he said: ‘The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are adding to the crisis by actively encouraging increasing numbers of migrants. Now we have the evidence they are in cahoots with the smugglers. We have evidence the smugglers call the NGOs directly and there are business deals between them.’

Col Shanboor claimed charities were paying up £450 for each migrant’s passage. He believes their motives are well-meaning but misguided.

Col Shanboor’s extraordinary accusation comes just months after an internal EU report revealed charity officials in boats were in direct contact with migrant vessels and even gave them precise directions to find rescue vessels. This year has already seen record numbers of migrants attempting the perilous crossing from Libya to Lampedusa and Sicily, turning Italy into the front line of the crisis.

Read the whole article at dailymail.co.uk