Italy to respect Libyan sovereignty in naval mission

EC says ports not guaranteed if NGOs don't sign code

ANSAmed

1 August 2017

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 1 - Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told the Lower House and Senate defence and foreign affairs committees that the government's proposed naval mission to support the Libyan coast guard's efforts against human traffickers "does not harm Libyan sovereignty in any way". She added: "our aim is to reinforce it". Pinotti stressed that the government's proposed naval mission to support Libya stemmed from a July 23 letter from Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj requesting "naval and technical support". She said the government would provide this via "technical, logistical and operative support to Libyan naval units accompanying them with joint, coordinated activities". Premier Paolo Gentiloni announced last week that Italy was considering a request from Libya for the help in combatting human traffickers after meeting Libyan Sarraj in Rome.

Most of the over 93,000 migrants to have landed in Italy so far this year started their journey across the Mediterranean from Libya, which has been affected by chaos since a Paris-led campaign contributed to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

It is hoped that the mission with the Libyan coast guard can help stem this flow, which is causing massive strain on the Italian authorities.

Gentiloni said Friday that the use of Italian vessels to support Libya would not entail "an enormous deployment of big feels and air squadrons".

The EU is working in "full coordination with Italian authorities", the spokesperson for EU foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ray, said Tuesday when she was asked whether Brussels backs the new Italian mission of support to the Libyan coast guard. Ray said EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini was in "regular contact with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni". Asked whether the EU meant to widen the Sophia operation, the EU's naval mission to combat the trafficking of migrants in the central-southern Mediterranean, along the lines of Italy's intervention, Ray said the EU first intended to see what Italy would do. She also noted that the European Council has just extended the Sophia operation, until the end of 2018. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), meanwhile, said Tuesday that it will continue to operate in the Mediterranean after refusing to sign a code of conduct at the Italian interior ministry for NGOs involved in migrant rescues at sea. "We did not accept the code of conduct because it does not protect our work and there is already international law that regulates everything," MSF Director General Gabriele Eminente told State broadcaster RAI. "We'll continue to work in the Mediterranean anyway, but at the moment I do not understand what this failure to sign entails". The introduction of the code of conduct comes after the NGOs involved in migrant rescues came under fire from some quarters in Italy for allegedly encouraging human traffickers.

The European Commission said Tuesday that it welcomed that some NGOs had signed the Italian code of conduct, pointing out that Brussels supported the document's preparation and calling on the "biggest number" possible to sign up. It said NGOs that do not sign will not be guaranteed to be able to take rescued migrants to Italian ports, if they were saved in areas outside Italian competence. It said international law stipulating that migrants be taken to a safe port remains valid, but stressed that this does not necessarily mean the nearest. (ANSAmed).


Source:  http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2017/08/01/italy-to-respect-libyan-sovereignty-in-naval-mission_54c22584-a181-4086-9771-1f0ae6b75ae5.html