• UN: Europe allows the landing of 507 people rescued at sea
  • Open Arms: Tar suspends entry ban, ship with migrants to Lampedusa

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15 August 2019The Open Arms ship with 147 migrants on board arrived at dawn this morning in the immediate vicinity of Lampedusa. Several patrol boats of the finance guard and the harbor master's office are monitoring the movements of the Catalan NGO boat that headed towards the island of Pelagie, escorted by two military ships, after the Lazio Regional Administrative Court accepted its appeal. suspending the ban on entry into Italian waters ordered by Salvini.

Ruling renewed yesterday by the Minister of the Interior who has appealed against the decision of the TAR reiterating his 'no' to the landing of migrants.

The Minister of Defense, Trenta, does not sign an entry ban
In the meantime, the distance between the Interior Ministry and Defense is widening in terms of prohibiting entry into Italian territorial waters to ships carrying migrants rescued in Sar areas of the Mediterranean. As far as we know from sources in the Interior Ministry, Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta did not sign the ban on entry into territorial waters for the Open Arms as requested by Matteo Salvini. A decision that is not surprising, according to the same sources, given that the owner of the Defense ordered the Navy ships to escort the Spanish boat to Italy.

The reference is to the fact that on Tuesday evening - as it was learned from defense sources - the Minister Trenta, after having contacted the Palermo juvenile court and having ascertained the conditions of the minors on board the ship of the Spanish NGO, had given a mandate the Chief of Defense Staff, General Enzo Vecciarelli, to order the Navy to move near the Open Arms two ships from the Mare Sicuro device ready to tranship the 32 minors.

Moreover, yesterday Trenta had contacted the other competent government authorities to arrive at the landing of the 32 minors aboard the ship for 13 days while sailing in international waters.

The suspension of the TAR of Lazio
Yesterday the TAR of Lazio ordered the suspension of the entry ban in the Italian territorial waters of the Open Arms. The NGO itself explained this, underlining that based on the judges' decision "we head to the nearest safe port so that the rights of 147 people, for 13 days on the deck of our ship, are guaranteed".


Tar: "Exceptional gravity and urgency"
"Certainly, in light of the documentation produced (medical report, psychological report, head of mission statement), the envisaged situation of exceptional gravity and urgency, such as to justify the granting - in the delays of dealing with the request for interim relief in the ordinary manner - of the request precautionary monocratic protection, in order to allow the entry of the Open Arms in Italian territorial waters ". This can be read in the text of the decree of the TAR of Lazio in relation to the appeal presented by the Open Arms against the measure of the Ministry of the Interior, in concert with the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Transport, who forbids the entry of the ship into the "national territorial sea". So the sentence goes on to explain that for the reasons mentioned above it is possible: "To provide immediate assistance to the most needy rescued persons, as indeed it seems to have already happened for the most critical cases".

Open Arms: satisfied
"We are satisfied, not for us, but for the thousands of people who are dying in the Mediterranean. Their rights are our rights". He wrote on Twitter Open Arms Italia, commenting on the Tar decree.

Conte in a letter asked for the landing of minors
The President of the Council Giuseppe Conte in a letter sent to the Minister Matteo Salvini - and for knowledge to the ministers Danilo Toninelli and Elisabetta Trenta - had asked to "put in safety the minors" present on the Open Arms ship.