The European Commission has strongly criticized the management by the Italian authorities of the Ocean Viking ship used to rescue migrants.
The Commission has called for all people rescued by the ship to be able to disembark immediately in the next safe harbor, the authority responsible for compliance with EU law announced on Wednesday.
He said the situation on the ship had reached a critical level and needed an urgent solution to prevent a humanitarian tragedy.
“The legal obligation to save lives and ensure the safety of lives at sea is clear and unambiguous, regardless of the circumstances that put people in danger,” the statement added.
The reason for Brussels’ harsh expressions is that the Italian authorities have so far refused to grant Ocean Viking permission to enter one of its ports.
The people of several other rescue ships were authorized to disembark in Italy only after an intervention by the Sicilian health authority of Catania.
The new far-right Italian premier Giorga Meloni has called the decision of the health office “strange”, according to reports from Meloni to her party colleagues on Wednesday, ANSA reported.
He claimed that the people on board were migrants, not shipwrecked, and therefore Italy had no duty to allow them to disembark.
