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Italy rebuffs German migrant appeal as rescue boat docks at Lampedusa


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Italy rebuffs German migrant appeal as rescue boat docks at Lampedusa

By Valentina Za

 

2019-07-06T170314Z_2_LYNXNPEF650FW_RTROPTP_4_EUROPE-MIGRANTS-ITALY.JPG

A still image from a video footage shows police officers guarding a migrant rescue boat, which docked at the port of Lampedusa in defiance of a ban on entering Italian waters, in Lampedusa, Italy, July 6, 2019. Local Team/REUTERS TV via REUTERS

 

MILAN (Reuters) - A migrant rescue boat on Saturday breached a ban on docking in Italy for the second time in a week, arriving illegally in Lampedusa, as Italy rejected a German call to open its ports to charity vessels.

 

Italy's migration policy is deepening rifts in Europe as NGOs clash with Italian authorities over rules that effectively close off the country's ports to their boats.

 

Italy's coalition government, which includes the right-wing League, blames European partners for leaving it alone to deal with sea arrivals. New rules were adopted last month threatening NGO ships entering Italian waters without permission with a fine of up to 50,000 euros and the impounding of their vessels.

 

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Saturday asked his Italian counterparty, League leader Matteo Salvini, to rethink the ports shutdown.

 

The sailboat Alex, carrying 41 migrants, docked at the same quay where a week ago another charity vessel collided with an Italian police boat when it decided to bring migrants ashore after two weeks in international waters.

 

The German captain of the Sea-Watch 3 boat, 31-year-old Carola Rackete, was arrested in Lampedusa last Saturday before a Sicilian judge ordered her release a few days later.

 

The German interior minister said he was working with the European Commission to find solutions for people aboard the Alex and the Alan Kurdi, a second NGO ship which is close to Italian waters and has also been denied permission to enter.

 

"We cannot allow ships with rescued people on board to be left sailing the Mediterranean for weeks because they can't find a harbour," he wrote in a letter. "We need swift European solutions in a spirit of common responsibility and solidarity."

 

But Salvini replied in a Facebook video that a policy change was out of the question.

 

"Dear German government I'm not reopening the ports ... if anything we're going to put ... [the migrants] in a car and take them to the German embassy," he said.

 

"If someone is used to considering Italy a dumping site for all the problems Europe pretend not to see, that's over. And this applies to the French and the Dutch," Salvini said, adding he "felt lonely" and called on fellow ministers to help more over migrants.

 

INTIMIDATED

 

The Alex was escorted to Lampedusa by an Italian naval vessel and a sea patrol boat, but the migrants were not allowed not leave the boat and policemen stood on the quay.

 

"The migrants must be immediately disembarked and taken care of," Italian NGO Mediterranea, which operates the Alex, said in a posting on Twitter.

 

Mediterranea had declined a Maltese offer to go to Valletta saying the people aboard could not sustain such a long journey.

 

But Salvini says Rome would not "yield to blackmail" and that armed forces were ready to intervene.

 

"I'm not authorising people who ignore Italian laws and help human traffickers to disembark," he said on Twitter.

 

According to Mediterranea spokeswoman Alessandra Sciurba, the charity had no choice but to head to the closest port due to health and hygiene conditions aboard the Alex.

 

But Italy's interior ministry said it had provided food, medicines and 400 litres of water, while another 400 had been refused by the Alex due to a lack of space.

 

"They refused water so that they could declare the state of emergency ... we won't be intimidated," Salvini said.

 

The League will propose increasing fines for NGOs violating the docking ban up to 1 million euros and making it easier to seize vessels, he added.

 

(Additional reporting by Wladimir Pantaleone in Palermo and Thomas Escritt in Frankfurt, Editing by William Maclean)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-07

 

 

 

 

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"Dear German government I'm not reopening the ports ... if anything we're going to put ... [the migrants] in a car and take them to the German embassy," he said.

 

And hand them over to Mrs. Ferkel, aeeh, my sincere apologies Mrs. Merkel. 

Pigs-head-found-outside-Angela-Merkels-constituency-office-1320x680.jpg

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4 hours ago, Ozman52 said:

 

"sea-eye
@seaeyeorg
 The so-called Libyan Coast Guard assigned us a Libyan port for the 65 persons on board. We have rejected this instruction.

The EU-funded Coast Guard requests us to violate int. law. We will not return the rescued persons to Libyan torture camps. #AlanKurdi
163
11:24 PM - Jul 5, 2019"

 

Hard to refute you are nothing but a taxi service when your refusal to land illegal immigrants is based on BS hyperbole. 

BS hyperbole, you say?

 

take them back to Libya, you (and some other soulless posters) say?

 

herein is categorical proof that this is not BS hyperbole. Anyone commenting further on returning refugees to Libya needs to have a good long look at themselves.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48854420

 

“At least 130 people were injured in the attack, which the Libyan government blamed on an air strike by forces loyal to a warlord, General Khalifa Haftar

 

But who is Haftar?.... well... seems he is likely a long time CIA puppet, involved in US backed attempts to remove Gaddafi

 

“He did this from exile in the US state of Virginia. His proximity to the CIA's headquarters in Langley hinted at a close relationship with US intelligence services, who gave their backing to several attempts to assassinate Gaddafi.”

 

meanwhile, to underscore this connection;

 

Late on Wednesday, the UN Security Council held a meeting behind closed doors, but was unable to agree on a statement condemning the air strike, after the US said it needed approval from Washington before it could sign it, the AFP news agency reports. 

It was unclear why this approval was not forthcoming, but the Security Council meeting ended without issuing a statement.

 

 

DB8F5470-0682-4407-8B80-1EC858029E50.png

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54 minutes ago, Ozman52 said:

Well it's not herein. In fact the word torture is completely absent, just a report of deaths in a war-zone hyped up to meet the agenda.

 

BTW how did these people from sub-Saharan Africa come to be in Libya? They chose to go there because it is a base for people smugglers. the people of Italy DO NOT WANT THEM, nor are they prepared to take responsibility for choices they made themselves.

Lmao.... yesterday you were criticizing sub Saharan Africans for traveling to a southern port to find a path to seek refugee  status ( re your attack on the intent of three Mali refugees exiting Africa thru the Ivory Coast)..... today you criticize refugees going northwards... damn... there’s simply no pleasing you.

 

anyway... the people of Italy are a part of the EU, and EU laws are determining events in Italy, but don’t let that worry you.

 

meanwhile.... of course your going to get people smugglers operating out of a war zone.... happened with Jews and allied soldiers before and during ww2... happened during the napoleonic wars... happened during the American civil war. Always happens. All those efforts are now universally applauded... what’s the issue?

 

And maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that being prepared to die at sea, in an attempt to reach safety, qualifies as taking responsibility for yourself... hell, trying to get your family to safety, is in the highest order of caring for your family, and taking responsibility.

 

That you see the carnage incurred by an attack on a refugee camp that was near a “legitimate” target, which the UN called to be moved to a safe location, months ago, because of this potential, as “reports of deaths in a war zone” and “hyped up” is despicable.

 

and ironically, you just referred to Libya as a war zone, whilst elsewhere maintaining that refugees should be sent there as it’s a safe place... a war zone... safe... crikey

 

Now... I know you have problems with links... they disappear on you, or don’t support your argument... or are to unsecured sites... or just simply don’t work.... but this link (mine) should support the whole torture bit somewhat. It’s a crying shame that you need to be led by the nose to the truth, all the while decrying it. 

 

https://www.dw.com/en/widespread-torture-and-rape-documented-in-libyas-refugee-camps/a-48070588

 

lol... just the other day, I saw a fool in a maga hat claiming trumps assertion that he could get away with shooting someone, was fake news, despite the fact that they were running the recording for her. 

 

Reminded me of you.... she was an embarrassment to America... while your an.... Australian 

 

anyway... a screenshot to your link in post 1.. maybe I have to subscribe, I don’t know, but here is you trying to educate people... well done.

53888014-F46F-4035-8113-DD3330B9E0B9.png

Edited by jany123
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8 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Sounds like a good start. I would rather an Australian type policy that offers no chance whatsoever for illegal economic migrants to be able to enter and stay in Europe.

 Going forward I think the only real solution is for wealthy productive western nations to start re-colonizing Africa. The African leaders have made no progress, it is a perpetual basket-case of a continent. Send over our industry captains and entrepreneurs and let's get these inefficient corrupt nations up and running again. We just can't pay for all of Africa to move to Germany and the UK, there is neither the room, the will or the funds for such extreme folly.

Europe is not a country.

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13 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Adopting the Australian policy is certainly a good idea. Make it a rule, widely known and enforced rigorously that anyone who enters any European country illegally will not be granted permission to stay - whatever reason.

 

That would effectively stop the customers of the smugglers as they know that once caught, game over.

 

African countries, are by and large undemocratic corrupt shit-heaps. But allowing hordes of young male economic migrants to enter Europe illegally, and then provided lots of assistance to them (whilst ignoring impoverished European citizens) isn't going to work or help solve the problem.

Australia has not stopprd illegal immigration at all. It has slowed the boats but most overstays and asylum seekers come in via air, and always have.

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24 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

The illegal economic migrants are willing to illegally enter Libya, a country in which they know the dangers, and pay illegal smugglers, to facilitate their illegal entry into Europe.

 

They now know that NGO's, with their often rich kid "heroes" will pick them up, maybe by planned rendezvous, and take them to an Italian port. There expectations is that they will then be well looked after and can wangle being allowed to stay in Europe, in a country of their choosing, and be transported free to that country and provided with all sorts of nice benefits. When the don't get what they want, or believe their entitled to more, they expect to behave like thugs and be treated more kindly as a result.

 

The UK has a real problem with Somali young men who believe they're totally entitled and untouchable, for example.

 

And, like so many liberal politically correct do-gooders, you believe allowing this to continue will somehow solve the problem.

 

It won't and will create one helluva backlash which is coming sooner than later.

No... no no no no no

 

i believe that every ships master has a duty to protect life at sea.

 

i believe states should conform to international law on these matters

 

i believe that every potential migrant, immigrant, refugee, displaced person or whatever term you pick, should have his/her case heard, and be assessed, then dealt with accordingly (accepted/ admitted or denied/deported)

 

And... i believe they should be treated humanely throughout this process.

 

What I don’t believe is that just because some folk are able to exploit a loophole, that all should be tarred similarly.

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