Open Arms Runs the Blockade at Lampedusa

Last night I reported on a migrant-ferry vessel owned by the NGO Open Arms, which has been anchored off the coast of Lampedusa, trying to get into the port. That story was translated from an Italian source, but the two videos below are French, and are essentially anti-Salvini propaganda.

If I am not mistaken, since these two videos were made, an Italian judge lifted the ban that prevented the boat from docking at Lampedusa, and now the puir wee bairns have at last been able to make landfall on Italian territory (see this story from ANSA, hat tip Insubria).

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.

The first video focuses on the heart-rending plight of the migrants, and in particular a man who wants to return to Algeria because the food isn’t any good and he can’t take a proper shower:

The second video is a made-for-TV drama. Several migrants jump into the sea for the cameras in an staged attempt to swim to Lampedusa:

Video transcript #1:

00:01   The fate of the migrants on board the Open Arms is still uncertain.
00:05   On Monday the humanitarian NGO seems to have rejected
00:09   a new offer from Spain to host the refugees in a Balearic port.
00:13   This Sunday it was in Algerisas, in the far south of the country,
00:17   that Madrid proposed to receive migrants.
00:21   “It has been several days since we have spoken to our families,” this migrant explains.
00:25   “They think we are dead. I would just like to disembark at Lampedusa
00:28   to call my family and take a shower.
00:31   If this continues, I would prefer to return to Algeria.
00:34   There’s no good food. There are no showers.
00:39   There aren’t even clean clothes. We are sick and can’t stay here.”
00:44   The Open Arms claims that it is not possible to sail for “three days
00:49   in hostile weather conditions” to Spain, and their boat
00:53   is just 800 metres from the coast of Lampedusa.
00:57   Rome assured them on Sunday evening that the Italian coastguard was
01:01   “ready to accompany the NGO to the Balearics, with all the necessary technical support”.
01:05   After more than two weeks in the Mediterranean, 107 migrants,
01:09   including two children, mainly from sub-Saharan
01:12   Africa and the Maghreb, are still on board. On Saturday 27 minors were able to land in Italy.
 

Video transcript #1:

3 thoughts on “Open Arms Runs the Blockade at Lampedusa

  1. I think Mr Salvini, when he becomes prime minister, or leader of the Italian government, should weed out all of the judges who are taking the side of Italy’s enemies.

  2. Very depressing news about that Italian judge. The communists are everywhere, especially in Italy.

  3. In a homogeneous country, a judge could never get away with something like this. The legislature would pass a law stripping the judiciary from jurisdiction over the issue. But, with society splitting up into multiple partisan and identity groupings, the only thing the legislature can do is authorize massive uncontrolled deficit spending.

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