Last weekend the Italian government barred two more migration ships from Africa on Saturday.
Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini demanded that the Netherlands recall their two Dutch-flagged NGO migrant ships that transport migrants from the African coast to Italy.
A fleet of NGO ships work around the clock to deliver “refugees” to Italy. A number of the organizations sponsoring ships in the armada are funded in part by organizations run by billionaire George Soros.
The Italian government told the Dutch ships: “They should know we are no longer part of this illegal immigration”.
Now this…
Italy will seize the two migrant ships after discovering they are flying the wrong state flags and are therefore breaking the law.
The BBC reported:
Italy says it will seize two migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean, citing doubts over their legal status.
Italian authorities said the Lifeline and Seefuchs, operated by the German migrant rescue group Mission Lifeline, were “illegally” flying the Dutch flag.
The Lifeline is carrying 226 migrants rescued off the coast of Libya, Mission Lifeline said.
Separately, the UN refugee agency has reported that 220 migrants drowned in the same area in recent days.
It called for “urgent action” from EU countries.
Italy’s new right-wing government has taken a harder stance on rescue ships bringing large numbers of migrants to Italy, which is often the nearest port for those rescued off coast of Libya.
Italy’s Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli said the ship had broken the law by taking the migrants, even though the Libyan coastguard had already intervened to rescue them.
He said Italy would seize both the Lifeline and the Seefuchs to determine their legal status, and said Italy would “once again save the migrants”.
In the middle of the night we reached a message: rubberboat in distress. Not far away from us. We offered our support to Alexander Maersk.They thankfully acceptet our offer. Now we are on scene and our RHIB Crew is assisting while the people have to climb a 5m knitting ladder. pic.twitter.com/pU4UiVhXGm
— MISSION LIFELINE (@SEENOTRETTUNG) June 22, 2018
