In Catania and Reggio Calabria, the disembarkation of all migrants from Humanity 1, Geo Barents and Rise Above has been authorised. Ocean Viking heads to Marseille.
Update of 9 November at 9:00. The Ocean Viking, the last of the four NGO vessels still sailing in the Mediterranean, is heading towards Marseille, after France announced its willingness to receive the migrants on board the ship, which flies the French flag as it belongs to Sos Mediterranee.
"We express our heartfelt appreciation for France's decision to share responsibility for the migration emergency — which until today has rested on the shoulders of Italy and a few other Mediterranean states — by opening its ports to the Ocean Viking," Palazzo Chigi announced.
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Update of 8 November at 19:30. After long hours of medical inspection, all 212 migrants remaining on board the Geo Barents in the port of Catania were given authorisation to disembark. The Médecins Sans Frontières vessel had been in port since Sunday afternoon, but initially only women, minors and people in precarious health conditions had been permitted to disembark, following the long days spent at sea. The total number of migrants to have disembarked since Saturday — from the Humanity 1 and Geo Barents in Catania, and the Rise Above in Reggio Calabria — thus rises to 805.
Shortly afterwards, the remaining 34 on board the Humanity 1 also received permission to disembark. In Catania, there are finally no more migrants still on board the ships moored in port.
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The Rise Above docked at the port of Reggio Calabria, and all 89 migrants who were on board the NGO vessel were allowed to disembark. This is because, unlike the ships that docked in Catania in the preceding days, the Mission Lifeline International vessel was recognised by the authorities as a SAR (search and rescue) operation that took place in Italian waters. The total number of migrants to have disembarked in a matter of days from NGO vessels thus rises to 593 — vessels with which the new Italian government has engaged in a fierce standoff — while autonomous arrivals continue unabated, at Lampedusa, along the coasts of Sicily and along those of Calabria.
Between Saturday and Sunday, 504 migrants who had been on board two ships disembarked at the port of Catania: the Humanity 1, belonging to NGO Sos-Humanity, and the Geo Barents, belonging to Médecins Sans Frontières. However, another 248 were still on board the two vessels: these are the "residual cargo" of the "selective disembarkation" established by the Italian authorities, to use the phrases which, according to Mediterranea, were used by the new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, whose first act upon taking office at the Viminale was to sign a decree prohibiting the disembarkation from vessels belonging to non-governmental organisations flying foreign flags.
A decision only partially reversed, even after some international pressure, to allow the disembarkation of minors, women and people in particularly vulnerable conditions.
The first vessel to obtain authorisation to moor in Catania, at the Molo di Levante, was the Humanity 1, which entered the port of Catania on Saturday night due to adverse weather conditions, carrying 179 people rescued at sea. Of those, 146 — women, children and people in precarious health conditions after more than two weeks at sea and 21 requests to the competent authorities that were systematically denied — were allowed to disembark by the Italian authorities. The other 34, following routine inspections, were not given permission to disembark: their ordeal continues.
On Friday evening, the captain of the Humanity 1 had received a letter signed by the Ministers of the Interior (Matteo Piantedosi), Defence (Guido Crosetto) and Infrastructure and Transport (Matteo Salvini), prohibiting the Humanity 1 from remaining in Italian territorial waters for longer than "necessary for rescue operations and the assistance of people in distress and in precarious health conditions." The Humanity 1, however, refused to leave after the disembarkation, and filed a complaint with the TAR, invoking international law, which obliges vessels to render assistance to people shipwrecked at sea.
Sunday afternoon saw the arrival of the Geo Barents, which had no fewer than 572 migrants on board: 358 of them were allowed to disembark, 214 remained on board. For Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, "humanity and firmness were combined," but Aboubakar Soumahoro and Angelo Bonelli, MPs for Alleanza Verdi Sinistra who were present in Catania, accused the government of "violating the rules on rescue at sea and preventing shipwreck survivors from accessing asylum procedures. The asylum law is clear: it is the de iure conditions that determine refugee status. The state does not grant it but recognises it after examining the application." According to the two MPs, an epidemic was under way on the ship and there was great tension, to the point that three men jumped from the vessel to swim ashore.
In addition to the Humanity 1, the Geo Barents and the Rise Above, another vessel was waiting in Italian waters for permission to enter the port of Catania: the Ocean Viking, operated by Sos Mediterranee, carrying 234 people rescued from vessels in the Libyan and Maltese search and rescue areas.
Spokespeople for the German Foreign and Interior Ministries reiterated that rescue at sea is a "moral and legal duty and cannot be prevented." The European Commission also pressed the Italian government: "There is a moral and legal duty to save people at sea, under international law. The time people spend at sea must be minimised." Pope Francis, returning from his apostolic journey to Bahrain, had stated, however, that "lives must be saved at sea, but European responsibility is needed. The EU must take charge of a policy of cooperation and assistance; it cannot leave Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain with responsibility for all the migrants arriving on their shores."
In a joint appeal, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) continued to urge European governments to rapidly offer a safe port and allow
