An Italian charity ship has rescued about 50 people at sea off Libya, prompting Rome to warn it was ready to “stop once and for all” such private vessels from bringing rescued migrants to Italy.
Italy’s hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has repeatedly declared Italian waters closed to NGO rescue vessels and has left several of them stranded at sea in the past in an attempt to force the rest of Europe to take more asylum seekers.
“Mare Jonio has just rescued a rubber boat in distress that was sinking with around 50 people on board,” the Mediterranea collective of aid groups and associations that runs the ship said on Twitter.
Volunteers aboard the Mare Jonio pulled the migrants – reportedly including 12 minors – from a dinghy 40 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.
A Libyan coastguard vessel had approached the dinghy while the rescue was under way but left the rescuees to the Mare Jonio, which was expected to request permission to bring them to Italy.
It was not immediately clear whether the Mare Jonio had defied an order from the command centre in Rome telling it to leave the rescue to the Libyans.
Source: The Guardian
