Council of Europe, Italy withdraws decree on NGOs

STRASBOURG - "The Italian government must consider the possibility of

or adopting all the necessary changes during the parliamentary debate "to ensure that the text is fully compliant with the country's obligations in terms of

and

".

This is what was requested by

, commissioner for human rights of the

, in a letter sent to the Minister of the Interior,

, on 26 January.

Mijatovic notes that she "is concerned that some of the rules contained in the decree hinder the provision of life-saving assistance by NGOs in

".

In particular, according to the commissioner, the provisions of the decree, providing that ships must reach the assigned port without delay for the disembarkation of those who have been rescued, "as has already happened, prevent NGOs from carrying out

, forcing them to ignore other distress calls in the area if they already have people on board".

Mijatovic points out that "by respecting this provision, the commanders of the NGOs would in fact fail in their rescue obligations established by international law".

Furthermore, Mijatovic says she is worried by the fact that "the ships of the NGOs have been assigned

as safe ports ", a fact which among other things "

at sea and unduly delays the provision of adequate assistance to meet their basic needs".

"I understand - writes Mijatovic - that the adoption of this practice was born from the intention of ensuring a better redistribution of migrants and asylum seekers on the national territory.

This objective could be achieved by quickly disembarking the rescued people and making sure that there are

to redistribute them in other areas of the country". Mijatovic's third note concerns "the vagueness of the notion of

contained in the decree and which could lead to lengthy and repeated safety inspections of NGO vessels, preventing them from resuming salvage work."

Finally, the commissioner touches on two other points concerning

.

On the one hand it asks the government to suspend cooperation with Libya and on the other it requests information "on the allegations, contained in some media reports, about the practice of repatriating people from Italy to Greece on private ships, where individuals are deprived of their freedom in very worrying conditions and without having had the opportunity to present an asylum application in Italy".

The fears expressed by

the human rights

.

This is what is highlighted in the response letter sent by

, according to ANSA.

"Unlike what has been asserted, the new provisions do not prevent NGOs from carrying out more rescue operations, nor do they oblige them, least of all, to ignore any requests for help if they have already taken other people on board", reads the letter of the government.

"What the new law intends to avoid is rather the

in the waters off the Libyan and Tunisian coasts in order to bring them exclusively to Italy, without any form of coordination", he specifies, adding that "such conduct, widespread among the NGOs, it falls outside the provisions of the international conventions on rescue at sea".

The government then specifies that the assignment of safe ports in central and northern Italy is made to redistribute the organizational and logistical burdens related to the management of landings among the regions, thus lightening the burden on Lampedusa, Sicily and Calabria.

Furthermore, it is added that the ships to which the furthest ports are assigned are large and therefore can carry out long crossings in safety, and that before assigning the port it is ensured that there are no situations of risk for the safety of people on board.

"Moreover, the fear appears groundless that what is contained in the new regulation on the need for ships 'to

' could lead to the need for long and repeated checks which would keep them away from the activity for a long time search and rescue,” reads the letter.

The letter ends with a reference to the issue of repatriations from Italy to Greece, defined as "groundless".