Italy has banned male migrants from coming ashore as their new Prime Minister attempts to crack down on immigration.
A total of 250 people remain on two vessels docked in Catania, Sicily as charities hit back the Italian government’s actions.
Over the weekend, Italian authorities said children and those in need of urgent medical care could disembark from the two ships, but anyone else could not.
While the captain of one boat, named Humanity 1, has refused to leave the port.
Italy has banned male migrants from coming ashore
ANTONIO PARRINELLO
Humanity 1
ANTONIO PARRINELLO
"The captain of the Humanity 1, who is legally responsible for the safety of all people on board, has refused the request to leave the port with the remaining 35 survivors on board," the NGO responsible for the vessel said.
On Friday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Humanity 1 and its remaining passengers would be sent out of territorial waters once those allowed to had disembarked.
The German NGO said that 35 migrants left onboard were in poor health and had fled "inhuman conditions" in Libya.
"This deprives them of both their right to freedom and their right to go ashore in a place of safety," Mirka Schaefer, advocacy officer of SOS Humanity, said in an emailed message.
While the Geo Barrents charity vessel had asked Rome for a safe port to disembark 572 migrants has also docked in Catania, the press officer for the ship said.
As in the case of Humanity 1, the Italian government has issued a decree to allow the Geo Barents to dock only to disembark people in the need of emergency assistance, government sources said on Sunday.
"Selective and partial disembark, as proposed by the Italian authorities, is not to be considered legal under maritime law conventions," said international NGO Medicins sans Frontieres, which runs Geo Barents ship.
It comes after the new Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, promised to crack down on migrants making the crossing across the Mediterranean.
