ROME (Reuters) – Migrants from one of four charity rescue boats that Italy has denied safe port to, were allowed to disembark on Tuesday after a week at sea, the German group that operates the ship said.
The Rise Above boat docked in the port of Reggio Calabria, in the toe of Italy, shortly after dawn and the 89 people it had picked up in the Mediterranean were let ashore.
“We are relieved that the rescued people are finally safe on land,” the German charity Mission Lifeline, which runs the Rise Above, said in a statement, condemning what it called an “undignified political game” that had kept them at sea.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s two-week-old administration has moved swiftly to impose a crackdown on boat migration, telling charity vessels that regularly ply the Mediterranean to take rescued people to other countries.
The government initially kept four ships at sea and although it allowed two to dock in Sicily at the weekend, it has only let off the most fragile migrants, mainly women and children, leaving about 250 still onboard.
The captains of the two boats, one operated by German charity SOS Humanity and the other by France’s Doctors without Borders (MSF), have refused orders to put to sea again with the remaining migrants and are challenging the edict in the courts.
A third ship, Ocean Viking, which is run by French charity SOS Mediterranee, remains off the coast of Sicily with some 234 migrants aboard. They were picked up from the sea off Libya 17 days ago and have repeatedly demanded access to an Italian port.
It was not immediately clear why the Rise Above was given clearance to dock. However, Mission Lifeline said it was a much smaller boat than the three other rescue ships and its passengers had suffered badly in recent heavy seas.
The U.N. agencies for migration and refugees appealed to Italy on Monday to let all the stranded migrants come ashore, adding that all “concerned states” should then take responsibility for the new arrivals.
Italy has seen a sharp increase in migrant arrivals this year, with about 88,000 people landing in 2022 against 55,000 in the same period last year, official data showed.
Most of them have come from Egypt and Tunisia and Italy says the vast majority of migrants are not fleeing war or discrimination but are seeking a rich life in Europe.
Rescues by aid groups accounted for about 15% of migrants who disembarked in Italy this year, the United Nations says.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer, Writing by Crispian Balmer)
