Italy makes a selective disembarkation of immigrants from a humanitarian ship: "It does not conform to the law"

"I hardly have any food and the diesel lasts me two days at the most. It's an emergency situation. I don't remember anything worse."

, captain of the ship of the German NGO Mission Lifeline, carries 93 refugees on board and, like other captains of migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean, has been demanding for days that Italy assign them a safe port to disembark.

His boat is small, 25 meters long.

Inside,

, crowd as best they can.

They wait, they have been waiting for weeks, months, years.

"They do not understand this situation. I try to explain to them that it is not the Italians who are doing this, but their new, racist government.

says Marco Antonio, who hastily cites all the international norms and conventions that oblige to rescue the shipwrecked, to take them to a safe place.

“Is there a difference between castaways, depending on whether they are from rich or poor countries?” he asks.

For three days, the Rise Above ship captained by Martínez has been asking the Italian authorities to give it a port, but has received no response.

The ship waits in the Mediterranean next to the Geo Barents, from Doctors Without Borders, with 572 people on board;

the Ocean Viking, from SOS Mediterranée, with 234, and the Humanity 1, the only one that Italy has allowed for the moment to disembark in the port of Catania apart from the 179 migrants on board.

Italy has decided to welcome only the most needy

: pregnant women, children and the sick.

The others must remain in international waters until the ships' flag states take responsibility.

A selective rescue.

The first example of the anti-immigration policy of the new Executive led by the far-right Giorgia Meloni.

Yesterday 144 people got off Humanity 1, on the ship - which is still docked in port - there are

who were rejected.

After allowing the selective landing, Italy asked the captain of the ship, Joachim Ebeling, to leave its waters, but Ebeling refused to obey and intends to remain in the port until all the migrants have landed, sources close to the captain told EFE .

The NGO that manages the ship, the German SOS Humanity, has appealed before the Court of Rome the laws approved by the Italian Government on migration matters.

This doctrine has been signed by decree by the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, the far-right

, currently on trial for the blockade of humanitarian ships between 2018 and 2019, when he was head of the Interior.

It is signed with him by the head of Defense,

, and the Interior Minister,

, a close collaborator of Salvini.

Marco Antonio Martínez also considers that Italian policies are not legal.

. We need European governments to protect us," he requests. The refugees on the Lifeline ship come from Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Tunisia, Egypt. Many of them have passed through Libya. Men have suffered persecution and torture. Women have been raped. "They are the heroes.

.

They have been trying to flee their countries for years.

You see those kids, so young, with a lost look.

If we had not rescued them, they would have died, their boats would not have withstood the storm," says Martínez, a captain originally from Cambrils, with five years of rescues in the Mediterranean behind him and who was previously with the NGO Proactiva.

"If they continue to deny us a port, I will have to enter, but I am afraid of the consequences

. The only sure thing is that I am not going to allow anyone to die at sea. It does not enter my head that they are allowed to drown," laments Martínez.

Last year, 3,231 people drowned in Mediterranean waters trying to reach the shores of Europe.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more