An Italian-flagged vessel funded by a German NGO has joined the fleet of so-called ‘rescue boats’ that operate on the Mediterranean Sea, and stands accused by the Italian government of colluding with people smugglers to bring as many migrants as possible to Italy.
Maldusa, an Italian pro-migration cultural association, supported by German NGOs ProAsyl and United4Rescue, has announced that its speedboat, which is smaller than regular coast guard patrol boats, has set sail on the Mediterranean. Its aim, they declared, is not to rescue, but to “monitor the waters around Lampedusa, to prevent shipwrecks and other forms of border violence, and facilitate the freedom of movement of all those trying to reach Europe.”
Lampedusa, a small Italian island, is the nearest European destination for migrants making their way across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya or Tunisia. It has been overburdened with migrants since the onset of the European migration crisis in 2015.
Boats operated by NGOs have been complicit in fuelling the crisis by regularly taking on board migrants from human smugglers who bring the migrants to sea from the shores of Northern Africa on makeshift boats. Anti-migration parties have denounced these sinister methods as a major pull factor for migrants wanting to reach Europe.
Maldusa’s philosophy lines up with that of other organisations that champion open-border policies. The Italian group says “borders cannot be closed because they do not exist.” They believe everyone should “be free to migrate without risking their lives, be detained or imprisoned.” The group has said that the Italian authorities’ “structural racism” plays a part in the management of migration, and they have criticised deals made with Libya and Tunisia, whose coastguards attempt to intercept illegally operated boats.
The Italian government, led by conservative Giorgia Meloni since 2022, has been grappling with a high number of illegal migrants entering the country, with official statistics recording a 50% rise last year—a total of 155,754 illegal migrants—compared to the year before. The government has accused the NGOs of colluding with human smugglers.
As we recently reported, a Libyan migrant smuggler and some of his satisfied customers shot a promotional video aboard a migrant ‘rescue ship belonging to a German NGO, SOS Humanity, in the Mediterranean. The footage shows the complete absence of any type of ‘distress at sea,’ but also shows that SOS Humanity was willfully complicit in the creation of the video that was clearly meant for use as promotional content, as it points viewers to a website where they could contact the smugglers to arrange a journey.
Meloni has harshly criticised the German government for awarding charities that operate migrant boats hundreds of thousands of euros. “It’s widely known,” she wrote in an angry letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz last year, that these NGOs are “multiplying the departures of precarious boats that result not only in additional burden on Italy but at the same time increases the risk of new tragedies at sea.”
The conservative Italian government has passed legislation to curb these boats’ activities. Rome has limited ships to one sea rescue at a time, and forces them to dock at an assigned port. It has also impounded ships whose crew are accused of having deviated from a designated course.
