Italian Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini has denied two migrant-rescue NGOs' claim he
leant on Panama to strip their ship Aquarius2 of its flag and
thus become a 'pirate' ship.
"It's clear that no country wants to take the responsibility
of being identified with a ship that hampers sea rescue
operations, refuses coordination with the Libyan coast guard,
attacks democratic governments like the Italian one, and expects
to distribute clandestine migrants in Europe," he said Sunday
night.
SOS Méditerranée and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said
earlier they were "shocked" after Panama's marine authority said
it had been "forced" to revoke Aquarius2's listing in its naval
register "under the evident economic and political pressure of
the Italian authorities".
The two NGOs said "this measure condemns hundreds of men,
women and children, in desperate search of safety, to drown at
sea and inflicts a hard blow to the Aquarius's humanitarian
mission.
MSF said the Aquarius2 had saved 47 migrants including 17
minors and a pregnant woman of Libya.
Salvini said Sunday the ship would "never" dock in Italy.
On Monday he called the Aquarius2 a "ghost ship".
SOS Méditerranée and MSF have appealed to the European Union
to intervene.
The Aquarius2 is just the latest in a string of NGO-operated
migrant rescue ships Salvini has turned away from landing at
Italian ports - but it is the first whose flag has been stripped
by a foreign government.
The Aquarius2 is heading for Marseille, where SOS
Méditerranée has asked authorities to "exceptionally" authorise
the disembarkation of the 58 migrants aboard, the NGO said later
Monday.
SOS Méditeerranée director operations Frédéric Penard told a
press conference in Paris that "the port of Marseille is the
only one possible from which to set off again".
Italy has barred its ports to the Aquarius2 after Panama
removed its flag and turned it into what Interior Minister
Matteo salvini called a "ghost ship".
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