Meloni, Piantedosi 'slap' for shipwreck victims - MSF

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 27 - Statements by Premier Giorgia Meloni and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi implying migrants brought tragedy on themselves by attempting the perilous Mediterranean sea passage to Italy are a "slap in the face" for the scores of victims of the weekend migrant shipwreck on the Calabrian coast, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday.
    The Italian government has been trying to discourage NGOs like MSF from saving lives in the Med saying they are a pull factor for migrants.
    It has assigned ports of arrival far from rescue points and brought in a code of conduct requiring rescue boats to make only one rescue at a time, with stiff fines if they break the code.
    "I say this with the respect that is due to the victims, with grief for what happened, and also with the firm intention, as requested by Premier Meloni, not to speculate on these tragedies. But we cannot help but say with anger that the first statements by Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Piantedosi are little more than a sad blame game, yet another slap in the face of the victims and survivors of this tragedy", said Marco Bertotto, director of programmes for MSF Italy during a press conference on the Crotone shipwreck.
    "Desperation can never justify travel conditions that endanger the lives of one's children," said Piantedosi, while Meloni said "the action of those who today speculate on these deaths, after having exalted the illusion of an immigration without rules, comments itself", adding that the government "is committed to preventing the departures and with them the consummation of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding the maximum collaboration from the States of departure and origin".
    The MSF-run Geo Barents has become the first vessel to be penalized under the Italian government's new decree regulating the activities of NGO-run migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean.
    The ship has been banned from operating for 20 days and its operators fined 10,000 euros for allegedly failing to give Italian authorities all the information they asked from it.
    The notification of the penalty was issued on Thursday after 48 asylum seekers disembarked from the ship in Ancona on February 17.
    MSF is considering appealing against the punishment.
    The Italian government is trying to discourage NGO-run ships, saying their activities encourage small boats carrying asylum seekers to attempt the hazardous crossing from North Africa to Italy.
    Under the decree, NGO-run ships must immediately request the authorities assign them a port of safety after making a rescue, rather than staying at sea to help other people.
    The government has also started to allocate ports of safety to NGO ships that are some distance from their position after making the rescues.
    The decree has come under fire from many quarters, including the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
    Interior Undersecretary Nicola Molteni on Thursday defended the decree, saying it does not aim to "criminalize anyone", but seeks to simply "regulate sea rescues.
    "It lays down rules of conduct that comply with the laws of the sea," he added.
    "Anyone in difficulty at sea should be saved. This is sacrosanct.
    "You don't let anyone die at sea".
    More than 100 people including many children and at least one baby are feared to have died in the tragedy off Crotone.
    The death toll currently stands at 62. (ANSA).