
Italy Detains Two Migrant Rescue Ships
Under a new law, after each rescue, charity-run ships have to request access to the nearest port and sail to it, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress.

Under a new law, after each rescue, charity-run ships have to request access to the nearest port and sail to it, rather than remain at sea looking for other migrant boats in distress.

Parliamentarians exchanged shouts and vulgarities after Doctors Without Borders accused Italy of being responsible for the 89 migrant deaths at sea, despite rescue workers’ claiming professional conduct.

The Monday rescue followed three others over the Easter weekend, which saw the deaths of at least 50 migrants, and the arrival—on the Italian island of Lampedusa—of 26 boats carrying 974 migrants on Easter Sunday.

After rescuing the four Tunisian migrants at sea in 2017, Italian authorities were found to have breached their human rights by failing to assess their asylum applications properly.

Le Monde reports that since the summer of 2022, an obscure group called the Nationalists Party has been running an anti-immigrant campaign on social media.