Italian authorities have placed the famous migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking under “indefinite” detention because of safety concerns found during an inspection in the port of Civitavecchia, according to a statement published by SOS Méditerranée, the NGO that owns the vessel. The news appeared on Thursday, July 13th—the same day the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the Commission to force Mediterranean countries to open their ports to NGOs.
According to the statement, the Ocean Viking docked at the port on July 11th, after picking up 57 migrants near the Libyan coasts four days prior. After migrants disembarked, the local authorities conducted a seven-hour inspection of the ship, finding several “technical and administrative deficiencies,” including one that requires further investigation to determine the vessel’s seaworthiness under international safety standards.
To the NGO, the detention appears to be politically motivated, because the problem they found—the lack of qualified personnel to deploy lifeboats—was not flagged in any prior inspections. The organization said it was working on resuming its rescue operations on the sea as soon as possible and condemned any attempt to hinder the work of migrant-saving NGOs.
The statement clearly refers to ongoing accusations lobbed at Italy in recent months. Italian policies have come under fire for obstructing NGO work, despite the fact that these same policies were implemented to assist in making the processing of migrants more transparent.
In February, Italy’s conservative government adopted a new law to prevent NGO ships from carrying out multiple missions at the same time, as well as assigning them specific ports to use for disembarking migrants. According to NGOs, these measures reduce the efficiency of their operations, but in the eyes of Rome, they help keep track of the ships, entries, and asylum requests—to avoid the chaos of recent years.
Perhaps not coincidentally, it was the same ship that ultimately provided the justification for these laws last year. In November 2022, Ocean Viking dominated the headlines for a few weeks after Italy refused to let it dock with 234 illegal migrants aboard. Eventually, France permitted entry for the ship, and—predictably—in just a few days, all but six migrants disappeared into the country, posing a clear security threat and causing administrative problems.
Regardless, leftist parties in Brussels have joined the chorus of NGOs asking for the Commission to put pressure on Rome to repeal the law. On Thursday, July 13th, MEPs adopted a parliamentary resolution calling for an investigation of whether these measures violate EU law, to force Mediterranean countries to open all their ports to NGO ships (and not only the assigned ones), and to launch a central, EU-led rescue mission aided by the same NGOs.
The problem with SOS Méditerranée and similar organizations is that they seem to be just as politically motivated as anyone else, suspected by many as just another branch of the Mediterranean’s human trafficking network, disguised as ‘rescue.’
Evidence from past years also seems to prove this, as the German Gefira Foundation observed at least nine of these NGOs—mostly financed by Soros’ Open Society Foundation—frequently picking up migrants right after leaving the Libyan coasts and ferrying them straight to Europe.
The Italian Supreme Defense Council also met on Thursday in Rome, where lawmakers and senior military leaders discussed the country’s strategic needs and goals for the near future.
Regarding migration, the Council agreed to carry on with PM Giorgia Meloni’s recent strategy to focus the attention of the EU on North Africa and launch initiatives that help the region’s political, social, and economic consolidation, as a way to address the root causes of the problem.
