Salvini closes Italy’s ports to German refugee rescue ship
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Interior Minister Matteo Salvini banned a German humanitarian ship carrying migrants rescued off Libya from entering Italian territorial waters.
The boat took aboard 100 people from a rubber lifeboat sinking roughly 50 kilometres off the Libyan coast on Monday.
Captain Claus-Peter Reisch said that Monday’s rescue had taken place “literally in the last second.” However, he added, “we still haven’t received a positive response from EU states.”
Claus-Peter Reisch, the captain of the Lifeline NGO rescue ship
The charity Lifeline, which operates the 20-meter (65-foot) ship, Eleonore, has urged Germany’s government to help identify a safe harbour. Should there be an emergency, representatives said, the boat will have to dock somewhere — permitted or not.
“The politicians should deal with it quickly,” Lifeline spokesperson Axel Steier told Germany’s Catholic news agency, KNA. “Otherwise, we’ll have to deal with it.”
Rescuers said Libya’s coast guard threatened the boat, coming within 50 meters on the open sea, stirring the nerves of passengers who had just escaped the country. Steier said the people on the ship were undernourished and dehydrated. There are about 30 minors, including 15 unaccompanied children.
