FIVE charities that help migrants said today they have complained to the European Commission about a new Italian law that forces rescue ships in the Mediterranean to dock in far-off ports.

The civil society groups – Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam Italia, SOS Humanity, Emergency, and Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration – argue the legislation breaks European Union and international laws regarding sea rescues.

“The European Commission is the guardian of EU treaties and has a role to play in ensuring EU member states respect international and EU law,” a migration policy adviser with Oxfam Italia, Giulia Capitani, said.

“Every day we spend away from the search and rescue region, whether in detention or navigating towards a distant port, is putting lives at risk,” said an MSF operations manager, Djoen Besselink.

Italy, which is ruled by a far-right government vowing to crack down on migrant boat arrivals, adopted a law in March that limits charity-run ships carrying out more than one sea rescue at a time, and once having done so they should dock at a port assigned by Italian authorities.

In practice, the goups say, that means rescue ships are forced to ignore other emergencies on the water if they have already acted, and they are being ordered to northern Italian ports several days away even though closer ports are available.

The five charities called on the European Commission to put Italy’s law and designations of remote ports under “immediate scrutiny”.

They also appealed for their ships to be included in a “state-led and proactive” search and rescue system in the Mediterranean.

The European Commission did not immediately respond to an AFP query about whether it had received the complaint and what comment it had.

The EU is working on a revision of its asylum and refugee policies aimed at sharing the burden of hosting asylum-seekers across the bloc and speeding the return of denied asylum-seekers to countries of origin or transit. – AFP, July 13, 2023.