Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is taking a hard line against any further landings by ships operated by “migrant rescue” NGOs. The most recent case is a ship that actually flies the Italian flag, but that is not enough for it to gain permission to dock in an Italian port.
Many thanks to He Ha for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:01 | Another NGO vessel off Italian shores, and once again the ports remain closed. | |
| 00:05 | This time it’s the Mare Jonio Ship of the Mediterranea NGO that yesterday, as you can see, rescued 50 migrants in the Libyan SAR zone. | |
| 00:15 | The NGO prevented the Libyan Coast Guard from weighing in, and the ship from disembarking at an African port, considered “unsafe”. | |
| 00:21 | While the ship approaches Italy, the Italian Government reaffirms its inflexible line. | |
| 00:27 | Yesterday, Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini dictated the line to be adopted by law enforcement, including the Navy and Coast Guard. | |
| 00:34 | That is, to prevent the illegals immigrants’ disembarkation onto national territory. | |
| 00:38 | So this morning the Italian Financial Police denied the Mare Jonio Ship access to Italy’s territorial waters. | |
| 00:44 | The vessel is one hour’s sail out of Lampedusa, sea force 9, with one ill person and 12 minors aboard. | |
| 00:51 | That’s a similar case to the Aquarius, the ship with 630 migrants aboard that was rejected last June. | |
| 00:58 | And to the Sea Watch ship, with 47 migrants aboard, that was prevented from disembarking for a period of 19 days before arriving in Sicily, just to mention two cases. | |
| 01:08 | There is a difference, however: this time Italy closes its ports to a vessel flying the Italian flag. | |
| 01:14 | The ship is funded through a solidarity operation and mission whose leader is the former no-global “white-suit” Luca Casarini. |
They already disembarked.
https://www.tgcom24.mediaset.it/cronaca/sicilia/lampedusa-sequestrata-la-nave-mare-jonio-migranti-fatti-sbarcare-inchiesta-della-procura-per-favoreggiamento_3197844-201902a.shtml
(This time the people smugglers used and italian flagged ship, and some well known old italian propaganda actors (who also insulted the migrants in the backstage of recording a promotional video of the event)).
https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi/status/1108107864994996224
I think that the pirate ship was let to pass to avoid further tension within the government. Today (20/03) the Senate is going to vote in favor or against Salvini (who has been incriminated with “kidnapping” by prosecutors for Diciotti ship case of august 2018). This vote is quite important because it could result in collapse of the government if Salvini is not backed by the Senate.
https://www.adnkronos.com/fatti/politica/2019/03/20/diciotti-giorno-del-voto_lOpQoxmwL9q2LlF4HwbtHI.html?refresh_ce
Amazing.
Today’s indigenous peoples in Europe seem almost evenly split on whether to maintain their existence as a people. If the Senate votes against Salvini, I guess there’s not much to be done for Italy, since they refused to help themselves. The first thing in dealing with dysfunctional people is, you can’t help someone who is actively sabotaging himself.
I think one of the shrinking list of benefits of the Trump presidency is that the EU’s plan to use military force to keep recalcitrant countries like Hungary in line, has been set back due to uncertainty about Trump’s reaction. This buys Hungary and the other Visegrad a few years to prepare, from which I suggest they take full benefit.