Court suspends delivery of patrol boats to Tunisia

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 20 - Italy's top administrative court, the Council of State, has suspended the delivery of six patrol boats to Tunisia, pending a ruling on a legal challenge by several NGOs against the move, the associations involved said on Thursday.
    The ASGI, ARCI, ActionAid, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Spazi Circolari and Le Carbet NGOs took legal action against 4.8 million euros of public money being allocated to the refurbishment of the boats so that they could be transferred Tunisia as part of cooperation with the authorities there.
    A decision on the petition is set to be made on July 11.
    "As even the United Nations has said, providing patrol boats to the Tunisian authorities increases the risk of migrants being subjected to illegal deportations," said Maria Teresa Brocchetto, Luce Bonzano and Cristina Laura Cecchini of the pool lawyers involved in the case.
    ARCI's Filippo Miraglia said serious human-rights violations were being committed by the Tunisian authorities.
    "The new wave of arrests and deportations of migrant people is now being accompanied by persecutions of the civil society parties who support them," Miraglia said.
    "Italian and European policies seem... impervious to the alarms sounded by the United Nations and the International NGOs, which unanimously condemn the actions of the Tunisian authorities" (ANSA).