• Migration: Open Arms enters Italian waters despite Salvini's rejection
  • Italy.The Open Arms manages to evacuate 9 immigrants to Italy for psychological reasons

The Open Arms ship is already in Lampedusa, but cannot disembark at its port. Both the Spanish NGO and the migrants themselves fear that the situation will be prolonged and blocked sine die. The constant refusal of Italian Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini, however, is fracturing the current Government of Giuseppe Conte, who believes that his vice president is being "unfair" in relation to the immigration issue.

The problem is that the 'premier' is nothing more than a mere referee in the already obsolete Italian Executive, where the 5 Star Movement and the League are now also faced by the immigration issue. The epilogue of the Open Arms case will depend on when the ship will need to disobey Salvini's anti-immigration law to also enter Lampedusa for medical reasons . This is what the Sea Watch ship did at the end of June with the famous captain Carola Rackete as the protagonist. Salvini, meanwhile, considers what is happening as a "provocation."

The embarked people enjoy a good state of health, as several medical professionals who have accessed the ship have already seen. The migrants, for the moment, are calm. From Open Arms they assure: " We have already carried out five urgent evacuations in 15 days . What do you expect to authorize the landing of all the people on board, to make the medical emergency unsustainable?" Even being only a kilometer away with the 138 migrants that it has on board - yesterday at night they landed nine people for medical reasons - nobody knows how long the others will have to be waiting. Among other things, because the management of the situation is causing a great fracture in the Italian Government, which are facing Conte and the leader of the League, the sovereignist Salvini. The President of the Executive says that Salvini's is an "unacceptable unfair collaboration."

Salvini is increasingly indignant about a situation that may condition him at will, but he cannot control at all: "It is a political provocation, a political affront, a political attack on the Italian Government," said Salvini, who added: "I dislike that some lend themselves to a political attack to confront Italy. They should go quietly to Spain: it is a Spanish ship and the Spanish ports are open . " In the midst of the Government crisis that he himself has caused, Salvini "does not understand" the entry of the Open Arms into Italian territory; which directly affects his credibility as a sovereignist leader: "How can it be that a Spanish ship, from a Spanish NGO, has to enter the waters of our country?" he asks rhetorically

through the social network Twitter, making a negative point a propaganda excuse. For its part, the Italian Interior Minister is willing to sign a new official document to reaffirm the denial of access against the Open Arms.

Hard Missive of Conte

Giuseppe Conte is not opposed to the fact that the Spanish humanitarian ship enters Italian territory, as does the Minister of Defense, Elisabetta Trenta . Both from the orbit of the Di Maio 5 Star Movement and not from the Salvini League. As the transalpine press shows, yesterday Conte sent a letter to Salvini asking for assistance for migrants. For his part, Trenta refused to sign a new document to prevent the entry of the Open Arms in Italy as Salvini intended. Moreover, the Italian Military Navy had been in charge of escorting the vessel with the Spanish flag on arrival at the country's coasts. Even so, Salvini declared: "I continue and will continue to deny the disembarkation of those who intend to bring some clandestines in Italy. If someone sees it otherwise they will have to assume their responsibility."

On Wednesday afternoon, the Italian Justice allowed the ship to enter the country's waters on the basis of an "exceptional situation of gravity and urgency", which justifies the decision for "rescued persons who need it to receive medical assistance." This implies that the Open Arms will not be punished following the new antimigration law of the Interior Minister and leader of the League , which provides fines of up to one million euros for those who enter without authorization in an Italian port.

Taking advantage of Libya as an unstable and fragmented country, migrants and refugees are hopeful, once international waters have been reached off the Libyan coast; that humanitarian NGO ships can see them in order to save their lives. Even before Salvini's arrival in the Italian Government, it was the country itself which, through its armed forces, collaborated and even coordinated the bailouts with NGOs operating in the Central Mediterranean, off the coast of Libya. Now, for political reasons marked by sovereignty, Salvini is putting all kinds of obstacles to prevent that neither the armed forces nor the NGOs can save the migrants trying to make the Italian Government turn a deaf ear in the old Mare Nostrum. However, NGOs - and when possible, also the Italian armed forces - are in charge of contradicting the Minister of the Interior on the basis of international duty that ensures that, deliberately, no one can drift in the sea.

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  • Open arms
  • Matteo Salvini
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