Italy: New Interior Minister Reviving Salvini Decrees to Stop Migrant ‘Taxi’ Ships

ROME, ITALY - OCTOBER 26: Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Minister of Sustainable
Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

Italy’s new Minister of the Interior has announced he will be looking to stop migrant taxi NGO ships ferrying illegal aliens to Italy, stating he will use the decrees previously enacted by populist League leader Matteo Salvini when he held the post.

Matteo Piantedosi initiated a directive against two migrant “taxi” NGO ships, the Humanity 1 and the Ocean Viking, based on the security decrees enacted by League (Lega) leader Matteo Salvini in 2018-19 when he was Interior Minister, which were credited with reducing illegal immigration to Italy and drownings at sea during his tenure.

The directive aimed at the two NGO ships claims the conduct of the NGOs is not “in line with the spirit of European and Italian rules on security and border control and the fight against illegal immigration,” the newspaper Il Giornale reports.

Specifically, Piantedosi says Germany and Norway, where the Humanity 1 and the Ocean Viking are flagged, should be required to receive the migrants the ships collect, not Italy.

 

 

Earlier this week, Minister Piantedosi expressed his desire to halt the activities of migrant “taxi” NGOs picking up migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and bringing them to Italy, rather than much closer African ports.

He stated that he would be working with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to contact Germany and Norway about the activities of the Humanity 1 and the Ocean Viking.

“I wanted to strike a blow to reaffirm a principle: the responsibility of the flag states of a ship. Does this principle apply only to Italy and not to Germany and Norway?” Piantedosi asked.

Salvini, who now serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s new government, praised the actions of Piantedosi, who served as Salvini’s right-hand man in 2018 and 2019.

“Message for human traffickers and their accomplices: as per the electoral program of the centre-right, Italy will no longer tolerate the business of illegal immigration and out-of-control landings. Foreign NGOs should act accordingly,” Salvini said on Twitter Thursday.

Italy has seen a surge of illegal immigrant arrivals this year, with over 77,000 illegals entering Italian territory. At least 10,000 of them have been ferried to the country by migrant taxi NGOs operating in the Central Mediterranean.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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