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'Enough, we're coming': Stranded rescue ship heads for Italy without permission

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
'Enough, we're coming': Stranded rescue ship heads for Italy without permission
The Sea Watch 3 has been waiting off Italy for 14 days. File photo: Federico Scoppa/AFP

The Sea Watch 3 NGO boat carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean said on Wednesday it was headed for Lampedusa island despite the threat of hefty fines from Italy's anti-immigration interior minister.

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"I've decided to enter the port of Lampedusa," Sea Watch quoted Captain Carola Rackete as saying. "I know this is risky, but the 42 shipwrecked on board are exhausted. I will bring them to safety."

Marine tracking websites confirmed the vessel had entered Italian territorial waters after spending 14 days sailing back and forth off the coast of Italy's southernmost island.

"Enough, we're coming in. Not to provoke, but by necessity, responsibility," Sea Watch tweeted.

Salvini has tried to ban the Dutch-flagged vessel from approaching under a "closed ports" policy, which has seen migrants repeatedly stranded at sea.

"We will use every lawful means to stop an outlaw ship, which puts dozens of migrants at risk for a dirty political game," Salvini said on Facebook after Sea Watch said it was headed for Italy. "I will not give permission for anyone to disembark."

Salvini said Rome's ambassador to The Hague was "taking a formal step with the Netherlands government". "Italy deserves respect: we expect the Netherlands to take in the immigrants on board," he said.

Italian coastguard and customs vessels approached the Sea Watch as it headed for Lampedusa port. 

READ ALSO: More than 40 people left in limbo on rescue boat off Italy

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg declined on Tuesday to intervene but called on Italy to "continue to provide all necessary assistance" to vulnerable migrants.

The German NGO Sea Watch had asked the ECHR to impose "interim measures" on Italy, saying the court could ask Rome to take urgent steps to resolve the standoff in order to "prevent serious and irremediable violations of human rights".

Salvini said on Tuesday the charity vessel could "stay there until Christmas and New Year" but would never be allowed in.

Of the 53 migrants initially rescued by the Sea-Watch 3 off Libya on June 12th, Italy took in 11 vulnerable people.

Salvini earlier this month issued a decree that would bring fines of up to €50,000 for the captain, owner and operator of a vessel "entering Italian territorial waters without authorisation".

On Lampedusa, where Salvini's nationalist League won 45 percent in May's European elections, a priest has camped in the street to demand those on board -- including three minors -- be allowed to disembark. Dozens of German cities have said they are ready to welcome them, and the Bishop of Turin, Cesare Noviglia, said on Monday his diocese would be willing to take them in.

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"We can't hold on any longer. It's like we're in a prison because we are deprived of everything. Help us, think of us," one migrant from the Ivory Coast said in a video broadcast by Sea Watch.

"It's serious when the captain has no other choice but to honour her sense of responsibility at the cost of personal consequences," said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the UN refugee UNHCR in Italy.

"The UNHCR asks for the security decree to be revised and for a system of rescue and disembarkment to be created. The criminalisation of NGOs must end," she said. 

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