Italy to fine migrant rescue ships €1 million
NGO run migrant rescue ships will be fined up to one million euros for defying a ban on entering Italian waters under a new League amendment to the government’s second security and migrants decree.
NGO skippers will be arrested if they fail to obey the orders of police or navy ships, a second amendment said.
In the meantime, Sea-Watch3 captain Carola Rackete was questioned in Agrigento Thursday on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration and refusing to obey a navy ship.
Leaving the prosecutor’s office she appealed for all countries to take in rescued migrants.
Rackete, 31, defied Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s closed ports policy to land 40 migrants at Lampedusa recently saying some had threatened suicide 17 days after being picked up off Libya.
She was arrested for flouting the ban and allegedly ramming a police boat was not upheld in a ruling that angered Salvini supporters.
Via ANSA
