On Friday, international maritime and humanitarian organization SOS MEDITERRANEE announced the rescue of 135 individuals, including vulnerable persons such as a pregnant woman and eight children, from an excessively crowded two-storey boat in the Maltese search and rescue area. The organization’s affiliated humanitarian ship, Ocean Viking, was compelled to travel to a distant port at Ancona, Italy, accommodating a total of 359 survivors on board.
This obligated redirection to a far-off port occurs amidst Italy’s increasing clampdown on migrants and stringent immigration policies that prioritise deterrence; consequently, these measures have attracted significant international condemnation.
In May 2023, the Italian government implemented an emergency law designed to limit the rights of individuals who “illegally” enter its borders. Human Rights Watch has criticized the law for its “devastating impact on migrants’ rights, including their ability to seek protection, access fair asylum procedures, and enjoy freedom of movement.”
This law proceeded a January 2023 decree which tasked search and rescue vessels to proceed to ports appointed by Italy immediately post-rescue, thereby preventing them from executing multiple sequential rescue operations.
The rule, which does not apply to other kinds of vessels, breaches the duty on all captains to give immediate assistance to people in distress under multiple international law provisions, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, the Palermo Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, and EU law. stated Human Rights Watch.
In a controversial move, Italy entered into an agreement with Albania to establish migrant processing centers under Italian jurisdiction in Albania. This controversial decision allows Italy to transfer migrants saved by Italian ships at sea to Albania.
Various international organisations like the International Rescue Committee have issued warnings about the potential implications of this agreement, stating it will push people onto increasingly dangerous routes in their quest for safety. Similarly, Amnesty International branded this move as “unworkable, harmful and unlawful”, urging authorities to dismiss the agreement.
The Hague-based foundation, UpRights, and Italian NGO StraLi released a report in February, underlining the inadequate actions of the Italian government in safeguarding migrants’ human rights. The focus was placed on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Italy and Libya, signed in 2017 and renewed in February 2023. The report pointed out that the blatant absence of human rights provisions in the agreement leads to the infringement of basic human rights of vulnerable individuals, with intercepted migrants at sea undergoing mistreatment like random arrests, torture, inhumane treatment, and sexual violence.
The full account of this story can be found on the JURIST – News website.