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While in Brussels Europe announces with great fanfare the (alleged) reversal of migration policies, the case of Alan Kurdi explodes, the ship of the German NGO Sea Eye that transports 125 migrants who have been wandering for days in search of a safe port at least four countries – Germany, France, Malta and Italy – that are rebounding responsibility. And so the words of the president of the Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, that “the time has come to raise the challenge of managing migration jointly, with the right balance between solidarity and responsibility”, collide with reality in the southern Mediterranean. . Four days ago, between September 19 and 20, the ship carried out three rescue operations off the coast of Libya, saving 133 migrants.
Among them 62 minors, the youngest of whom is five months old. Immediately after the intervention, Alan Kurdi, according to the NGO, contacted the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers of “Italy, Malta, Germany and France, as well as the German Foreign Ministry”, requesting a safe harbor “but none of them. he replied.” The ship then sailed to Lampedusa where, however, the landing permit was denied. On that occasion, the Coast Guard sent an email to the commander asking that he contact the competent maritime coordination center, that is, Bremen, since the ship is flying the German flag. The rescues were carried out outside the Italian SAR zone, was the explanation given to the crew, and our country did not coordinate anything. It is not clear if the commander has followed the instructions of the Coast Guard, while from Germany, according to what has been reconstructed, no response has ever come.
The ship thus remained off the island until this morning, when it decided to set sail for Marseille, the port from which it left. With 125 migrants instead of the 133 saved: 8, two minors and their families, were in fact evacuated on Tuesday night for medical reasons by the Italian authorities. “The inaction of the Italian and German authorities forces us to take this step,” said Sea Eye President Gordon Isler, noting that “all maritime rescue centers are obliged to cooperate because human lives are at stake.” The decision to focus on Marseille was welcomed by Deputy Mayor Benoit Payan. “The city is ready to unconditionally welcome the ship,” he says, “if Alan Kurdi expresses the will to come to Marseille, we reaffirm the position that we will not let anyone drown in the Mediterranean.” But Paris thinks otherwise. First, the government spokesman Gabriel Attal and then the Interior Ministry stressed that the ship “must be received in the nearest safe port.” And therefore in Italy. “In the last two years – says the ministry – we have always guaranteed solidarity with Italy. We are at your side with a solidarity mechanism to attend the landings, so we ask you to respond favorably to the request of the NGO to disembark in the safe port. close by. “For now, however, no response has come from Italy. Meanwhile, the Alan Kurdi is already heading north and, having left Sicily behind, is heading straight for the mouth of Bonifacio.
