• Eleonore.Salvini closes the Italian waters to the German ship Eleonore with 100 migrants on board
  • Immigration: data that refute the collaboration of rescue NGOs and mafias
  • Interview: The pastor of Lampedusa: "Italy is not afraid of foreigners, but of poor foreigners"

The Italian Finance Guard has ordered the preventive seizure of the Eleonore ship from the German NGO Mission Lifeline after the ship violated this morning the ban on entering Italian territorial waters to force the landing of a hundred migrants on board. Meanwhile, the Italian authorities have authorized for sanitary reasons the landing of the last 31 migrants left aboard the Mare Jonio ship of the Italian humanitarian organization Mediterranea Saving Humans.

The captain of the Eleonore boat, Peter Reisch, declared the state of emergency last night because of the storm and announced that he would enter the territorial waters of Italy despite not having the permission of the country's authorities. Shortly after, a boat of the Guard of Finances approached until the ship and some agents raised on board to check the conditions of the crew and the 104 rescued migrants.

The ship of the German humanitarian organization had eight days waiting for the authorities of Italy or Malta to grant authorization to enter its ports but neither of the two Mediterranean countries responded to the ship's requests. The NGO had denounced the precarious conditions of the migrants due to the small size of the boat that had forced many of them to sleep on the deck.

The German Government, the country to which the NGO belongs, pledged last week to host a portion of the rescued migrants and urged the Italian authorities to adopt an "urgent" solution. Despite this, the acting Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, and the Italian Infrastructure and Defense officials signed the "prohibition of entry, transit and stop in Italian territorial waters" of the German ship.

The 104 migrants aboard the Eleonore will disembark at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. In the same port, 29 migrants aboard the Italian military ship Cassiopea are expected to arrive in the next few hours . Meanwhile, off the coast of Lampedusa are the ships Alan Kurdi, from the German NGO Sea Eye with 13 rescued persons, including eight minors, and Mare Jonio, from the Italian organization Mediterranea Saving Humans with 31 migrants on board, which is Tomorrow has been authorized to disembark the rescued after five days stranded.

The mission leader of the transalpine NGO, Luca Casarini, announced that Italy had authorized the landing of the last migrants aboard the vessel for health reasons after sending two medical reports to the authorities on the psychological conditions of the 31 shipwrecked and " a dramatic night. " "We have returned the law of the sea in Italy: the shipwrecked cannot remain in the sea," Casarini said.

"What is happening in the last hours in the Mediterranean, between continuous landings in our coasts and inhuman prohibitions, confirms that the immigration policies of these months have not solved anything," denounced in a note the secretary of the Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti The Social Democratic leader, who is negotiating a pact with the Five Star Movement to form a coalition government, demanded that the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, "immediately face" the situation of people blocked at sea in conditions of "humanitarian emergency "and called for a" radical change "in migration policies that the M5E approved along with the leader of the League.

Salvini has denounced the decision of those responsible for the Eleonore to violate the entry ban to force the landing and has stressed that the laws must be "respected." "If someone thinks they can cheat without consequences, they are mistaken as a minister: I do and will do my best to defend Italy," said the acting Interior Minister.

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  • Italy
  • Matteo Salvini
  • Refugees
  • immigration

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