Of Adolfo Spezzaferro
For the first time, an Italian ship, after having rescued the immigrantsin mare, brought them back in Libya. It's about the Ace Twenty-Eight, a support vessel for an oil platform, That, in application of what has been established by the Italian government, coordinated with the Tripoli Coast Guard which is competent in those waters for the management of SAR search and rescue operations.
The boat, reports The Press, “it seems he followed the indications from the Coast Guard operations center which ordered the commander of Asso via radio from Rome 28 to coordinate with the Tripoli Coast Guard. Essentially the order was to bring those migrants back to Libya.".
“We have learned that one of the dinghies reported today by the Italian Coast Guard with 108 people on board in the Mediterranean were rescued by the ship Asso Ventotto, flying the Italian flag, which is heading towards Tripoli. We do not yet know whether this operation takes place on the recommendation of the Italian Coast Guard, but if that were the case it would be a very serious precedent, a truly collective rejection for which Italy and the ship's commander will answer before a court“, he said Nicola Fratoianni of Free and Equal, aboard the Open Arms. “International law – he adds – provides that people rescued at sea must be taken to a safe port and those in Libya, despite the mystification of reality by the Italian government, cannot be considered as such".
The case of Asso Ventotto, which for the moment has no official confirmation, it would be an important precedent. Yes why the EU reiterated a few days ago that it does not recognize Libya as a safe port and that therefore European ships should not return immigrants rescued at sea there. The President of the Chamber, Roberto Fico, yesterday he repeated Brussels' diktat: “Migrants cannot be returned there”. But the government, apparently, decided differently.
The yellow-green executive already prevailed in a similar case twenty days ago, that of the support vessel for an oil platform, the Your Thalassa, who after having rescued the immigrants was about to hand them over to a Libyan patrol boat when an attempted revolt on board - the illegal immigrants feared being brought back - convinced the commander to reverse course and ask for help from the Italian Coast Guard who then took him on board the ship Eighteen immigrants disembarking them to A drillafter the interference of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini on Twitter he denies the involvement of the Italian Coast Guard: “The Italian Coast Guard did not coordinate and participate in any of these operations, as falsely declared by a foreign NGO and a misinformed left-wing parliamentarian“. The Libyan Coast Guard rescued and brought him back to shore in the last few hours 611 immigrants. NGOs protest and smugglers lose their business? Bene, we carry on like this!#closed porticos and #openhearts”.
In the end, l’Unhcr said it is "gathering all the necessary information on the case of the Italian tugboat #AssoVentotto which would have brought it back to Libya 108 people rescued in the Mediterranean".
Source: https://www.ilprimatonazionale.it/primo-piano/nave-italiana-soccorre-e-riporta-in-libia-gli-immigrati-e-la-prima-volta-90504/