ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended allowing only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from rescue ships, saying they are “not shipwrecked but migrants,” reports said.
She also said the decision by health authorities to subsequently let hundreds of people off two charity vessels docked in Sicily was “bizarre,” according to media reports from a closed-door meeting.
Meloni was speaking to lawmakers from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, amid fierce criticism and a row with France over her hard-right government’s treatment of migrants rescued by charity ships from the central Mediterranean.
“The Italian government is complying with all international conventions,” she said, according to the ANSA news agency.
The recent ban on two NGO ships “stopping in Italian waters, beyond the time necessary for rescue operations and to help fragile people, is justified and legitimate,” Meloni said.
“On board these ships there are not shipwrecked (people) but migrants.”
Rome allowed the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 ships to dock in Sicily at the weekend and disembark around 500 migrants, but another 250 were blocked from landing, until finally being let off late Tuesday.
Meloni said the decision was taken by health authorities, “declaring them fragile on the basis of possible risks of psychological problems,” a choice “we found bizarre,” according to ANSA.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Wednesday that Italy’s new approach is a signal to other European Union nations to better share the management of migrants crossing from North Africa.
He highlighted France’s offer of a port of safety for one rescue ship that had been off Italy as proof the strategy was working — even though Paris has not confirmed such an offer, and has sharply criticized Rome’s approach.
In an interview with regional journalists, Tajani was asked if the selective disembarkation was a signal, replying: “Indeed it was.
French “President (Emmanuel) Macron’s decision to open the port of Marseille to the Ocean Viking shows that something is moving.
“We are grateful to France which has shown its willingness to take a decision that reduces the pressure on Italy, demonstrating that it understands the need for a firmly supportive approach among EU countries.”
Meloni’s office late Tuesday thanked France for taking in the Ocean Viking, which has 234 people on board and had been waiting off Sicily for days for permission to disembark them.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran said Wednesday it remained in waters under Italian responsibility, saying Rome’s refusal to take in the ship was “unacceptable.”
Tajani said he would raise the issue of immigration at a meeting of EU ministers next week.
Rome wanted “an agreement to establish, on the basis of population, how migrants with a right to asylum are relocated to various countries.”
Rome is also pressing for EU deals with North African countries to stop migrants leaving there and “stop traffickers, destroying the engines of their boats,” he said.
Italy defends blocking migrants, sending message to EU
https://arab.news/5d9jx
Italy defends blocking migrants, sending message to EU
- Meloni was speaking to lawmakers from her far-right Brothers of Italy party
- Rome allowed the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 ships to dock in Sicily at the weekend and disembark around 500 migrants
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
