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Transalpine Justice is clear: saving the 163 shipwrecked Open Arms, who were drifting for 19 days in the Central Mediterranean, was an obligation for the NGO, Spain and Italy. It is what is interpreted from the decree generated on Tuesday by the Prosecutor's Office of Agrigento (Sicily) to which EL MUNDO has had access through sources of the Italian Government. The judicial document explains, in great detail, the complete dynamics of the events that the Open Arms had to experience until the seizure of the ship that took place yesterday, after which the last 83 people landed on board. After a week and only one kilometer from the coast of Lampedusa.

The Open Arms "informed the MRCC - an acronym to indicate the maritime rescue coordination center - of Rome that it would have asked Malta and Spain for a safe harbor , " is explained on the second page of the Italian judicial document. The NGO itself, consulted by EL MUNDO, says that "in all the mails that Open Arms has sent, the MRCC of Spain in Madrid has always been in copy." So it can be said that, although the Open Arms has not explicitly requested safe harbor from Spain and yes to Malta; The Government of Pedro Sánchez had a prominent responsibility in the matter because the flag of the ship, to this day, is still Spanish.

Although Spain intervened 17 days late, it was always aware of Open Arms problems. The Spanish NGO ship made its first rescue at 4:00 p.m. on August 1 in international waters. The second was at 04:00 on August 2 - the third will be on August 10. In response to what was described in the official paper of the Sicilian Prosecutor's Office, the Open Arms, on the same night of August 2, "requested the assignment of a safe harbor to the MRCC of Rome the migrants on board, indicating Lampedusa as a safe harbor closest".

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The Government of Spain was 17 days aware of the activity of Open Arms , whose rescue would not only have had to support, but above all demand. If, on the one hand, the Vice President of the Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo , believes that the Open Arms "does not have permission to rescue"; Article 98 of the UNCLOS Convention of the UN, one of the sources par excellence of the International Law of the Sea, ensures that "each State", that is to say Spain, "has to demand that the commander of a ship carrying his flag", thus the Open Arms, "offer rescue as soon as possible to anyone who is in danger of life at sea . " The UNCLOS Convention clearly states, as does the Italian Justice, that "coastal States" have to "collaborate" with other States.

The Open Arms did not enter Malta not because it did not want to, but because it could not. One of the criticisms that in recent days have fallen on the Open Arms crew on the part of the Government and the Spanish political class is that the humanitarian organization did not want to enter a safe harbor in Malta. It is not what the Italian Prosecutor's Office reflects, who says that on August 10, after the third rescue, "the MRCC of Malta formally asked the MRCC of Rome that Lampedusa be the safe harbor . " From there, the Open Arms, "remained in international waters between the islands of Lampedusa and Malta, while awaiting the assignment of a safe harbor by the national authorities involved."

Spain or Italy cannot refuse to promote the rescue of human life in the Mediterranean because it is an unavoidable obligation of an international nature, in case the human imperative is not enough. The SOLAS Convention, a star instrument in the field of "security of human life at sea" clearly obliges that "the commander of a ship that is in the position of being able to provide help" has to "act very quickly" to save "people in danger at sea". Rescue work is the obligation of any ship that is near shipwrecked.

Madrid and Rome cannot afford not to respect international maritime law. As if that were not enough, the SAR Convention, the emblematic norm of international search and rescue, obliges the signatory States to "guarantee the help of all types of people in danger at sea, without distinguishing for reasons of nationality, the particular status of the individual or the circumstances in which it is found. "

The Italian Justice unblocked last Tuesday the situation in Lampedusa and proceeded to provisionally seize the Open Arms for "sanitary" reasons, according to article 328 of the penal code that provides jail sentences of six months to two years. The seizure of the humanitarian vessel puts the Italian Interior Minister, the sovereignist Matteo Salvini , as the main suspect as the exclusive protagonist of the non-landing of the Open Arms in the port of Lampedusa. For the moment, the Italian Justice has opened an investigation still against strangers.

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  • Open arms
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Matteo Salvini
  • Carmen Calvo

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