The hipster-right Identitarian youth movement has raised over 65,000 euros to track and disrupt pro-migrant NGOs who rescue migrants in the Mediterranean and bring them to Europe.
The project, named “Defend Europe”, is the brainchild of the Identitarian youth movement who started in France as Generation Identitaire and have expanded throughout Europe to Austria, Germany, Italy, and other countries during the migrant crisis.
Breitbart London spoke to co-leader of the Austrian movement Martin Sellner, one of the most recognisable members of the movement. He said the money raised would go towards hiring a ship that would track and disrupt pro-migrant NGO vessels using what he described as “Greenpeace style” tactics.
The group gave a brief preview of their tactics last month when they hired a small boat and attempted to disrupt the ship Aquarius which belongs to the NGO SOS Mediterranee, as it left port in Sicily to head toward Libya where it would then look for migrants to rescue.
“We have reached our funding goal and received many emails from volunteers. We have a crew and a plan but what we still need is a ship,” Sellner said.
When asked what their plans for action were Sellner said: “We will watch them closely on the radar, document their behaviour and perform nonviolent actions in a Greenpeace-style to disrupt their routes.”
Sellner added that if the Identitarian ship saw migrants in trouble on the sea they would not hesitate to rescue them but with one difference: they would turn them back to Libya.
“These NGOs are the cause of all the deaths on the sea. The Australian No-Way campaign has proven, that once you stop the human trafficking, also the drowning stops,” Sellner said.
Australia adopted a strict policy when boats started arriving on their shores, redirecting asylum seekers to islands off the coast and produced a social media campaign telling migrants that Australia would not allow them to stay.
“Since our governments are doing nothing, we need to take action,” Sellner said and claimed the NGOs’ “actions have been going on completely uninterrupted – until now”.
Italian prosecutors have been investigating the activity of the pro-migrant NGOs and Sicilian prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro has accused the NGOs of working directly with people smugglers.
Even the European Union border agency Frontex has voiced concern about the NGOs saying their actions may be encouraging more migrants to make the voyage. Some have accused the organisations of acting as a “taxi service” for illegal immigrants.
So far this year, the number of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean route has set new records and the number of deaths by drownings has increased by 42 per cent.