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The reservation of the ship that rescued hundreds of refugees and internally displaced persons in June is politically motivated, say medical officials.
Doctors Without Border (MSF) paramedics have urged Italian authorities to release one of the life-saving vessels, saying the detention is politically motivated.
MSF’s search engine Geo Barents was detained on July 2 following a visit to a Sicilian port in Augusta that identified 22 “deficiencies”, the festival said on Sunday.
An Italian coast official said the 10 issues mentioned were acceptable to come down because it endangered the safety of pilots and passengers alike.
The ship, he said, was equipped with life-saving equipment for only 83 people.
In the past, the ship rescued more than 400 people, including many children who were not traveling together in a breakaway boat back in June, MSF spokesman told Reuters.
Many came from troubled nations, such as Syria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Mali.
MSF said it wanted to comply with the government’s wishes and make all “necessary changes”, but warned that the review of its vessel could “represent an opportunity for officials to achieve political goals based on regulatory mechanisms”.
The office described maritime officials’ comments on security as “a vague definition of maritime law”.
MSF has confirmed that Italian authorities have seized NGO vessels 13 times since 2019.
Four women were detained here, “leaving nothing to save lives in the Mediterranean Sea”, says MSF.
UN report criticizes EU
Thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons travel each year across the country, often departing in small boats from Libya with the hope of reaching Europe.
So far this year, 866 deaths have been registered in the Mediterranean, according to the United Nations migration agency. Most of them, 723, died on the way to the Mediterranean Sea where the MSF vessel was operating.
A UN report in May said the European Union and its 27 member states were responsible for the killings because they had helped to curb the rescue operation.
When the EU relinquished its search and rescue services, governments banned rescue agencies building their ships, which had been operating in the central Mediterranean for years, and fired shots at supervisors. .
Italian coast officials said that on Saturday, in early 2021, they visited 681 different national warships plying Italian ports, and 55 were detained in prisons.
The Open Arms Rescue Service, operated by a charitable organization in Spain, was released late last month after a two-month operation in Sicily.
“The inspection of NGO ships in Italian ports is a long and deep process, with the aim of finding a safe haven for ships to return to the sea to save lives,” said Duccio Staderini, MSF’s search and rescue officer.
“We are facing a grim reality: when humanitarian ships are built, lives continue to be unnecessarily lost in the Mediterranean.”
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