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Italy accused of breaking intl. law for illegally rejecting asylum seekers

Tuesday, 08 November 2022 3:10 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 08 November 2022 3:10 AM ]

Max Civili
Press TV, Rome

A string of humanitarian groups have slammed the Italian government for breaking international law after pushing back over 200 asylum seekers who were trying to reach a safe port in Italy. Two rescue vessels, the Humanity 1 and the Geo Barents, had docked in Sicily on Sunday, carrying hundreds of asylum seekers.

The most vulnerable ones, women, children and ill people, were allowed to disembark, but 35 men on the Humanity 1 and another 215 on the GeoBarents were told to stay on board. That was made possible by the Italian authorities hastily adopting a new decree, which has introduced a selective approach in deciding who can disembark from the rescue boats.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had put migration flows in the spotlight during her first trip to Brussels last week when she asked the EU to help handle asylum seekers’ arrivals on Italian coasts.

The Humanity 1 said it would launch legal action against the Italian government, claiming Rome's decision to not let all the asylum seekers disembark violates European law and the Geneva Refugee Convention.Meanwhile, two other boats run by nongovernmental organizations remain at sea with no ports willing to accept them.

In 2017, the Italian government signed an EU-sponsored agreement with the Libyan government. The deal - which is still in place – provides that Italy and the EU help the Libyan coast guard to enhance its maritime surveillance capacity by providing financial support and technical assets.

In practical terms, under the deal, every asylum seeker intercepted at sea ends up in a Libyan detention center where torture, sexual violence and abuse are practiced.

Since the start of the year, about 180,000 asylum seekers have reached the EU on boats, up almost 90% compared to the year before. We are in the middle of the biggest mass migration in Europe since the end of World War II, and as distasteful as this may sound, that’s also a huge business opportunity. An increasing number of people believe that refugee flows keep pouring into the old continent for the greed of those who exploit asylum seekers for profit in and outside Europe.

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