People on rescue ship off Italy at breaking point, say doctors

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

The medical and psychological condition of people onboard a rescue boat anchored off the Italian island of Lampedusa for 18 days has reached breaking point, doctors have said.

The vessel operated by the Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms has been refused permission to dock by Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini. On Monday Open Arms suggested chartering a plane to fly the 107 migrants onboard to Spain.

A group of doctors who visited the vessel last week said sanitary and hygienic conditions were very poor and the boat was not fit to hold such a large number of people.

“The migrants are living piled on top of each other; there is no possibility of walking,” doctors from the Italian Order of Malta rescue unit said in a report.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/19/people-on-rescue-ship-off-italy-at-breaking-point-say-doctors

[chowder66]

1. This is god damned maddening. Salvini is acting just like Trump.

"The migrants were taken to safety in early August from traffickers’ foundering dinghies off Libya. Salvini reiterated his refusal to let them disembark on Monday, describing the medical report as “fake news” and the “latest stitch-up from the NGOs”. .

Authorising disembarkation now would be perceived as a political defeat for Salvini, who wants snap elections in Italy to take advantage of his strong polling numbers.


“The refusal to allow the Open Arms to land certainly has a symbolic and a strategic value,” said Massimiliano Panarari, a politics professor at Rome’s Luiss University. “Salvini’s refusal to allow disembarkation is also a way to reaffirm the political identity of [his party] the League.”

[Steelrolled]

2. Migrants are simply pawns in a political battle.

[Igel]

3. Yes, they are.

When I heard the story, I was thinking that it was a long trip that they'd made.

Lampedusa is closer to Sicily than it is to Tripoli by around 50 miles, but closer to Tunisia than to Sicily ... by about 50 miles.

"Picked up off the coast of Libya" makes it sound like they started off closer to Libya than to Italy.

[Mike_DuBois]

4. Typically they are

The smugglers load bodies into whatever floats and shoves it off shore. Otfen times rescue vessles operate within sight of land, yet bring their rescuees clear across to Italy. I believe it is this practice that is behind the Italian accusation rescue boats are supporting the smugglers. There are no easy and humane answers.