CATANIA, Sicily: The ship's captain refused orders to leave a Sicilian port after authorities refused to disembark passengers on a rescue ship carrying migrants as part of the directives of Italy's new far-right government.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's two-week-old government is refusing safe port to four ships operating in the central Mediterranean that have rescued migrants at sea in distress, some as many as 16 days ago, and is allowing only those identified as vulnerable to disembark.
Amidst 144 rescued migrants disembarking from the Humanity 1, including children and unaccompanied minors, Italy ordered the vessel to clear Catania port on Sunday.
But its captain refused to comply "until all survivors rescued from distress at sea have been disembarked," said SOS Humanity, the German charity that operates the ship. The vessel remained moored at the port with 35 migrants on board.
A second charity ship, the Geo Barents ship operated by Doctors Without Borders, arrived in Catania on Sunday with 572 migrants after a vetting process allowed 357 to disembark, but 215 were detained.
Families were the first to leave the ship. One man cradling a baby expressed his gratitude, saying “Thank you, Geo Barents, thank you,” as he left. Another man in a wheelchair was carried down by Red Cross workers.
Yet two other boats run by non-governmental organizations remained stuck at sea with no port willing to accept the people they rescued.
Italy's new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is targeting non-governmental organizations, which Italy has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea. The groups deny the claim.
Humanitarian groups, human rights activists and two Italian lawmakers who traveled to Sicily protested the selection process as illegal and inhumane.
Neither translators nor psychologists were on hand during Italy's selection process and many of the migrants were from Gambia, unable to speak French, English or Italian said Soumahoro, who spent the night on the ship.
"Their fault is to speak another language. "Their fault is to have another color," Soumahoro said, accusing the Italian government of using the migrants to distract from other issues, including high energy prices.
Later at the port, he accused Meloni of playing politics at the expense of “newborns, of women, of people who have suffered traumas of all kinds,” including torture in Libyan prisons.
Doctors Without Borders emphasized that "a rescue operation is considered complete only when all of the survivors have been disembarked in a safe place."
Amnesty International called Italy's stance "disgraceful."
"Italy legitimately expects other EU member states to share responsibility for people seeking asylum, but this does not justify imposing measures that only increase the suffering of already traumatized people," the group said.