Illegal migrants from Africa have been demanding and expecting to be shuttled into the EU by NGOs. They knowingly embark on a dangerous journey to the EU, counting on this help. The illegals exploit the willingness of anyone to aid and abet them. Meanwhile, the UN, which has long encouraged open-door immigration policies in Europe, expects full compliance.
It takes courage to enforce rule of law, but courage is severely lacking in politicians today, with the notable exception of Giorgia Meloni, who is prioritizing the well-being of her own citizens.
Italy saw over 100,000 illegals land on its soil without any vetting in 2022, mainly from “Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Syria and Afghanistan.”
“Italy approves clampdown on migrant rescue ships, fines charity,” EURACTIV, February 24, 2022:
Italy’s parliament on Thursday (23 February) passed into law a government decree establishing a code of conduct for migrant charity ships, despite criticism from the United Nations and humanitarian groups that it will imperil lives.
The new set of rules is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s efforts to crack down on the rescue vessels, which her government says encourage people to make the perilous trip across the Mediterranean from northern Africa.
Charities deny this, saying migrants set to sea regardless of whether rescue boats are in the vicinity.
Under the new law, ships have to request access to a port and sail to it “without delay” after a rescue, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress, and disclose detailed information about their rescue activities.
Previously, vessels operated by charities, or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), often spent several days in the central Mediterranean and regularly completed multiple rescues before heading north towards Italy.
Captains breaching the new rules risk fines of up to €50,000, and repeated violations can result in their vessels being impounded, the law stipulates.
Hours after the parliamentary vote, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said its Geo Barents vessel had been blocked for 20 days and the organisation fined 10,000 euros.
The sanctions were imposed after MSF was accused of withholding some information about a rescue it completed last week, when the Geo Barents took 48 migrants to the Adriatic port of Ancona, a spokesperson for the charity said.
“We are assessing what legal actions we can take to challenge what happened. It is not acceptable to be punished for having saved lives,” MSF said in a tweet.
‘Exploitation, forced labour’
Nicola Molteni, a deputy interior minister and member of the hard-right League party, told the upper Senate before its final vote on Thursday that “if immigration is not controlled, it creates exploitation, forced labour, illegal labour.”Humanitarian groups said banning multiple rescues would cause ever more deaths while the United Nations urged Italy to withdraw the decree.
“This is simply the wrong way to address this humanitarian crisis,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Roman Catholic Church in Italy last month said the new measures violated international law and should be scrapped.
NGOs also complain the government is forcing them to take migrants to distant northern Italian ports, far from where they carry out the rescues.
The new obligations have significantly increased costs for the NGOs and only a few boats have taken to sea in recent months. But their reduced sailings have done nothing to slow the arrival of migrants.
Government data shows 12,667 people have reached Italy so far this year, more than double the same period of 2022…….
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Good move. Not just that, they should declare those ‘charities’ terrorist and human trafficking organizations, and go hard at them like they did against their mafia
Yesterday or the day before, Hugh’s story here was about how Africans south of the Mahgreb who are en route to Europe are taken into slavery when they can’t pay the human smugglers to smuggle them into Europe. The EU and other governments that are not deporting everyone are only contributing to this human trafficking. By putting the kabash on that, Italy is at least starting to roll back the trend. More countries need to follow suit – if not for their own people, at least for those ‘migrants’. Better yet, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco (Libya still doesn’t have a functional government) should simply deport these migrants back to the countries they came from
PRCS says
Change Europe/EU to the USA.
And, yes, the NGO there and here.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Speaking about the Americas, El Salvador is becoming an idyllic place, as President Bukele (whose name I just discovered yesterday) has thoroughly cracked down on crime and put all their thugs in a max security jail, devoid of the ability to run schemes from inside. I heard a speech of his on Michael Knowles’ show, and it was inspiring
Linde B. says
It is very sad and sickening that so many people live in countries whose governments are controlled by an unholy few and the vast majority of people get no positive results from the governments which are supposed to serve them, the people. As the great American author Mark Twain said:
“Loyalty to your nation – always;
loyalty to a government – when it deserves it.”
Jean says
Make no mistake, 15,000 immigrants have arrived in Italy so far. Look at this site http://voxnews.info/. They do nothing to stop illegal immigration and the Italian state even helps transport immigrants to Italy.
Linde B. says
To Jean and John Smith- Could someone be greasing the palms of the Western European leaders? Seems so to me! I have read on several occasions that Hungary will not allow Islamists to settle there. Those Hungarians are very smart. 😎
John Smith says
Well I’ve heard it all before, how western governments have pledged to stop them coming in. But they keep coming.
OLD GUY says
Seems to me that if you are rescued at sea, you should be returned to your home country not to your country of choice. If you provide rescue ships to bring these illegal migrants to your shores they will keep coming. Looks like these rescue ships are profiting from the illegal immigration of Italy.
stevo k says
No, the ships purpose for being in the vicinity must be legitimte, such as frieghting from europe to africa or vice versa and if the ship is an NGO it must hug the african coast and as soon as picking up said migrants return them to their port of departure!