France reacted to the extreme right-wing government in Italy, which did not dock the Ocean Viking ship belonging to the non-governmental organization (NGO) named “Sos Akdeniz” carrying 234 immigrants it rescued in the Mediterranean.
By the way, as of last night, Italy took in all the immigrants in 3 of the 4 NGO ships that have carried out rescue operations in the Mediterranean in recent weeks and rescued about a thousand people.
Thus, the Ocean Viking remained the only ship that Italy did not allow to dock in its ports.
Olivier Veran, Spokesperson of the French Government, warned that Italy, which benefits most from EU migrant acceptance funds, must fulfill its duty and fulfill its commitments to the EU.
Veren said in a statement, “The ship Ocean Viking is currently in Italian territorial waters. There are very clear EU rules on this issue. In fact, Italy, which is the most beneficiary of the EU financial solidarity mechanism, also accepted these rules.” He warned Rome.
Noting that the diplomatic talks between the two countries on the subject are continuing, Veran emphasized that the Italian government’s refusal to allow this ship to dock at their ports is “unacceptable”.
The NGO named “Sos Akdeniz” announced that France had responded positively to their urgent call for the Ocean Viking ship, which was waiting with 234 immigrants off the coast of Italy, and that this ship was allowed to dock at the Port of Marseille.
In a written statement from the Italian Prime Ministry on the subject, “We sincerely appreciate France’s decision to share responsibility for the urgent migration problem that has so far been on the shoulders of Italy and several Mediterranean states.” expression was used.
Italy gives the green light to migrants it does not allow to disembark from NGO ships
Meanwhile, Italy gave permission to disembark the migrants aboard the NGO ships Humanity-1 and Geo Barents, which were waiting at the Port of Catania to evacuate the irregular migrants they had rescued in the Mediterranean, due to the worsening of their health conditions.
In the statement made on the Twitter account of the France-based NGO Doctors Without Borders, to which the Geo Barents ship is connected, it was stated that the evacuation of the immigrants was allowed after the Italian health authorities confirmed the criticality of the health status of the 213 people on board.
In the statement, it was stated that “This unfair waiting has finally come to an end”.
A similar situation took place on the Humanity-1 ship of the German NGO Sos Humanity yesterday evening. According to the announcement made by the NGO, an evacuation permit was issued for the 35 immigrants detained on this ship after the health checks.
While the decision to evacuate the immigrants, who were held on both ships and had low hopes in landing, was greeted with applause, and the evacuation was completed at night.
In the first stage, 144 out of 179 people were evacuated and 35 people were not allowed on Humanity-1, one of the ships that were docked at the Catania Port with the immigrants they rescued in the Mediterranean on 6 November. While the 35 people in question continued to wait, they started a hunger strike to protest that they were not evacuated.
Another ship, Geo Barents, was able to evacuate 357 of the 572 people she rescued in the first stage, but 215 people remained on board. On the ship, where the people on board took action saying “Help Us”, 2 immigrants had landed by jumping into the sea the previous day. The remaining 213 people were evacuated yesterday evening.
Thus, Italy, which has recently drawn attention with its decision not to give safe harbor to NGO ships and to “select” the immigrants on these ships, has as of last night taken all the immigrants from 3 of the 4 NGO ships that have carried out rescue operations in the Mediterranean and rescued about a thousand people in recent weeks.
Yesterday morning, Italy allowed the ship “Rise Above” belonging to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Germany-based “Mission Lifeline International” to dock in the city of Reggio Calabria to evacuate 89 immigrants rescued.