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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italian court rules government’s anti-migrant decree unlawful

An Italian court has ruled against a government decree preventing some migrants rescued at sea from disembarking boats on arrival in Italy, a charity said on Monday.

Published: 13 February 2023 15:35 CET
Italian court rules government's anti-migrant decree unlawful
Aid organistations said Italian government decrees targeting rescue ships contradict international maritime law. (Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP)

The court ruled unlawful the restrictions imposed under a decree issued in November, which said only those deemed most vulnerable may disembark at Italian ports.

The restrictions were first placed on the rescue ship Humanity 1 in November, after it had picked up 179 people in distress in the central Mediterranean – the world’s deadliest crossing.

It was given permission to dock in the Sicilian port of Catania, but only for enough time to disembark its most vulnerable passengers.

While 144 people were allowed off, another 35 migrants were refused and left stranded after the government sent doctors to carry out medical checks on board.

READ ALSO: Anger as Italy accused of illegally rejecting migrants rescued at sea

Similar restrictions were imposed at the time on the Geo Barents, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders, while a third vessel, the Ocean Viking, decided to head to France rather than face the same situation.

Eventually the 250 remaining migrants from both Humanity 1 and Geo Barents were allowed to disembark, following sharp criticism from the NGOs and the UN.

Following a legal challenge, a Catania court has now declared the Humanity 1 decree “unlawful”, according to a February 6 judgement published by SOS Humanity on Monday.

“It is clear that among the international obligations assumed by our country, there is that of providing assistance to every shipwrecked person, without distinguishing on the basis of health, as in the inter-ministerial decree,” it said.

Mirka Schaefer, advocacy officer of SOS Humanity, hailed the verdict, saying “the new Italian government is obliged to follow international law”.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government took office in October after September elections in which her far-right Brothers of Italy party and its allies vowed to stop migrants from arriving in Italy.

A new, wider-ranging decree law was introduced this January obliging charity ships to only perform one rescue at a time.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

Aid organistations said this decree also contradicted international maritime law, urging lawmakers to vote against it when it comes before parliament this week to become a full law.

Doctors Without Borders said “The decreased presence of rescue ships will inevitably result in more people tragically drowning at sea.”

The Council of Europe has also criticised the January decree, warning it “could hinder the provision of life-saving assistance by NGOs”.

The Italian government accuses charity ships of acting as a “pull factor” and “encouraging” people traffickers.

However charity vessels only rescue around 10 percent of migrants brought to safety in Italy, with most saved by coastguard or navy vessels.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy joins countries calling for asylum centres outside EU

Italy is one of 15 EU member states who have sent a joint letter to the European Commission demanding a further tightening of the bloc's asylum policy, which will make it easier to transfer undocumented migrants to third countries, such as Rwanda, including when they are rescued at sea.

Published: 17 May 2024 11:59 CEST
Italy joins countries calling for asylum centres outside EU

The countries presented their joint stance in a letter dated May 15th to the European Commission, which was made public on Thursday.

It was sent less than a month before European Parliament elections across the 27-nation European Union, in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains.

Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania signed the letter.

In it, they ask the European Union’s executive arm to “propose new ways and solutions to prevent irregular migration to Europe”.

They want the EU to toughen its asylum and migration pact, which introduces tighter border controls and seeks to expedite the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers.

The pact, to be operational from 2026, will speed up the vetting of people arriving without documents and establish new border detention centres.

The 15 countries also want to see mechanisms to detect and intercept migrant boats and take them “to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU, where durable solutions for those migrants could be found”.

They said it should be easier to send asylum seekers to third countries while their requests for protection are assessed.

They cited as a model a controversial deal Italy has struck with Albania, under which thousands of asylum-seekers picked up at sea can be taken to holding camps in the non-EU Balkan country as their cases are processed.

READ ALSO: Italy approves controversial Albanian migrant deal

The European Commission said it would study the letter, though a spokeswoman, Anitta Hipper, added that “all our work and focus is set now on the implementation” of the migration and asylum pact.

Differences with UK-Rwanda model

EU law says people entering the bloc without documents can be sent to an outside country where they could have requested asylum – so long as that country is deemed safe and the applicant has a genuine link with it.

That condition differentiates it from a scheme set up by non-EU Britain under which irregular arrivals will be denied the right to request asylum in the UK and sent instead to Rwanda.

Rights groups accuse the African country – ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people – of cracking down on free speech and political opposition.

The 15 nations said they want the EU to make deals with third countries along main migration routes, citing the example of the arrangement it made with Turkey in 2016 to take in Syrian refugees fleeing war.

Camille Le Coz, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said: “In legal terms, these models pose many questions and are very costly in terms of resource mobilisation and at the operational level.”

The opening date for migrant reception centres in Albania set up under the deal with Italy had been delayed, she noted.

With the June 6th-9th EU elections leading to a new European Commission, the proposals put forward by the 15 countries would go into the inbox of the next commission for it to weigh them, she said.

She also noted that EU heavyweights France, Germany and Spain had not signed onto the letter.

“For certain member countries, the priority really is the implementation of the pact, and that in itself is already a huge task,” Le Coz said.

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