Deputy Premier and Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini said Thursday that a ship operated by the
Sea-Watch NGO should dock in Tripoli after it rescued 52 people
from a rubber dinghy off the Libyan coast this week.
"After embarking 52 immigrants in Libya waters, the illegal
ship now finds itself 38 miles from the Libyan coast, 125 miles
from Lampedusa, 78 miles from Tunisia and 170 miles from Malta,"
League leader Salvini said.
"The Libyan authorities have officially allocated Tripoli as
the nearest port for the disembarkment.
"If the illegal NGO ship disobeys, keeping the lives of the
immigrants at risk, they will answer for it fully".
German NGO Sea-Watch has on several occasions sought to
challenge Salvini's policy of closing Italy's ports to NGO-run
search-and-rescue ships.
The government, meanwhile, has just passed a new decree that
would see NGO ships that bring migrants rescued at sea to Italy
without permission fined up to 50,000 euros.
The NGO said Thursday that it will sue Salvini for
defamation.
The minister has called the NGO's vessel "a pirate ship that
allows some people to repeatedly break the law".
Sea-Watch later reiterated "we will not offload the rescued
migrants in Libya".
It said "Tripoli is not a safe port. Forcibly taking rescued
people back to a war-torn country, having them imprisoned and
tortured, is a crime.
"It is shameful that Italy is promoting these atrocities and
that EU governments are complicit".
Salvini retorted: "Sea-Watch is abducting these migrants".
On Thursday evening the ship was reported to be heading north
towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Salvini issued a new directive warning it from entering
Italian waters.
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