Meloni announces rules putting a stop to human traffickers

- ROMA, 03 GEN - "Illegal migration and human trafficking are over: an Italy that does not protect those who abide by the rules and yet turns the other way with those who systematically do not, is finished". This is what PM Giorgia Meloni writes on her Instagram account, while posting a reel with an excerpt of the latest of "Giorgia's notes" on the day when the NGO decree enters into force.
    International law "does not foresee for someone to act as ferryboat across the Mediterranean or any other sea to transfer people from one nation to another". Firstly, the norms "limit the remit of rescue of migrants to what is already foreseen under international law with a few simple rules: if you run into a boat and rescue those on board you must bring them to safety, so you should not keep them on board while conducting other multiple rescues until the ship is full" which is not to be considered "saving shipwrecked persons". Secondly, there must be "consistency among the activities that some ships conduct in the Mediterranean and the reason for which these ships are registered: commercial ships that start to go back and forth to save migrants is something that clashes with their original mission". Furthermore, what is needed is "a screening on those on board, clear information on rescue mechanisms, rules to impede that while rescuing these people the ship's safety is put to risk. Strict rules that allow to respect international law".
    If they are not respected "there is no authorization to enter international waters and, if this is violated, what should follow is an administrative block of the ship, the first time this happens for a period of two months, should it occur a second time the ship should be seized and confiscated. We do this also out of respect migrants because if someone is risking his life he or she has the right to be rescued and not to become part of human trafficking in the third millennium, which is something very different and, in addition, continuing to making ruthless human smugglers rich with millions of euro".