Europe migrant crisis: Italy threatens to close ports as ministers meet

BBC - Europe

2 July 2017


Germany, France and Italy's interior ministers are to meet for crisis talks as Italy warns the influx of migrants into the country is unsustainable.

Italy has threatened to close its ports and impound rescue ships run by aid agencies carrying people from Libya.

It needs more support as people cross the Mediterranean from Africa in large numbers, the UN's refugee agency said.

More than 500,000 migrants have passed through Italian ports since 2014, and numbers are on the rise again.

Why is Italy under so much pressure?

Italy is the main destination for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea, due to its proximity to Libya.

According to the UN, 83,650 people have reached Italy by sea since the beginning of the year - a 20% increase on the same period in 2016.

Numbers have been rising steeply, with about 12,600 migrants and refugees arriving last weekend alone.

Most migrants make the journey across the Mediterranean in rickety boats, and the UN estimates that 2,030 migrants have died or gone missing since the start of the year.

Libya is a gateway to Europe for migrants from across sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, Syria and Bangladesh. Many are fleeing war, poverty or persecution.

The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, said that among the arrivals in Italy there was an alarmingly high rate of unaccompanied children or victims of sexual or gender-based violence.

Can Rome block rescue ships?

The Italian coastguard takes the lead in co-ordinating rescue operations but many of the vessels run by non-profit groups sail under the flags of other nations, including EU countries like Germany and Malta.

On Wednesday, Italy threatened to stop vessels from other countries from bringing migrants to its ports.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has accused other European nations of "looking the other way".

Speaking on Sunday, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said: "If the only ports refugees are taken to are Italian, something is not working."

"We are under enormous pressure," he added.

It is not clear if blocking rescue ships would be legal.

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea dictates that any ship learning of distress at sea must assist regardless of circumstances, and that the country responsible for operations in that area has primary responsibility for taking them from the ship.

Are other EU countries helping?

Under a solidarity plan agreed in 2015, EU countries were meant to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers between them, to help relieve pressure on Italy and Greece.

The UK and Ireland were exempt from the plan, while Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary voted against accepting mandatory quotas.

So far, only about 20,900 of the 160,000 refugees have been relocated.

The Czech Republic has accepted only 12 of the 2,000 it had been designated, while Hungary and Poland have taken in none.

The EU has begun legal action against the three countries for ignoring "repeated calls" to take their share.

Some EU countries have taken large numbers of migrants separately, including Germany, which had an influx of more than 800,000 migrants in 2015.

Most of them were refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who arrived in Germany by land via the Balkan migration route.

What do the UN and EU say?

"What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.

"This cannot be an Italian problem alone," he added.

On Thursday, the EU's migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, promised more financial support for Italy, and urged member states to demonstrate greater solidarity.

A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.


Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40470102

Aid agencies encourage migrants in the Med, says Italian senator: Official accuses relief organisations of providing a 'public transport' service which 'enriches' people traffickers

* Lucio Malan said aid agencies should stop bringing migrants into Italy
* The senator accused migrants of coming to Italy so they don’t have to work
* Italy has threatened to turn away charity boats packed with rescued migrants


Mail Online

By Richard Marsden

1 July 2017

An Italian senator has accused relief organisations rescuing migrants from the Mediterranean of operating a ‘public transport’ service that is ‘enriching’ people traffickers.

Lucio Malan said aid agencies and charities running rescue ships should stop bringing them to his country and take them to the nearest coast instead.

The senator, from the centre-Right People of Freedom party, spoke after Italy threatened to turn away charity boats packed with rescued migrants from Africa.

He claimed that the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean was so regular it was not a rescue but ‘public transport’.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the senator accused migrants of coming to Italy so they don’t have to work and can rely on the public support.

‘All these people are coming to a country which has 40 per cent youth unemployment,’ Mr Malan added, while accusing rescue organisations of worsening the problem.

‘The more there are ships ready to take these people from a few miles from the Libyan coast, the more people leave from the Libyan shores and the more the people traffickers earn money,’ he said.

In a deepening row with the EU over its position at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis, Italy has warned that the current situation is ‘unsustainable’.

A record number of migrants are expected in Italy this year. United Nations figures show that almost 78,742 have arrived so far compared to 67,702 in 2016 – a 16 per cent increase.

It has led Rome to threaten drastic action to stop the influx. Ministers have suggested that boats not flying the Italian flag or belonging to an EU-endorsed mission could be refused docking rights. Italy’s EU minister Sandro Gozi warned that his country is ‘really reaching its limit’.

The government is becoming tougher on migrants, quadrupling the number of detention centres from five to 20, and limiting the appeals process against refusal of asylum.

There is also growing anger in Rome that other EU countries have not acted on a deal to take in asylum seekers. Brussels has begun legal action against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to take an agreed share of refugees.

Officials in Rome say they face a bill of billions of pounds every year to deal with the tens of thousands of asylum seekers already in Italy. Brussels has said it was ready to increase financial support for the country, and commission president Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday urged other EU countries to do more to help.


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4656162/Aid-agencies-encourage-migrants-Med-says-senator.html

Italy threatens to close its ports to ships carrying rescued migrants, saying it can no longer cope

The Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome

29.06.2017

The EU has appealed to Italy not to make good on a threat to close its ports to boats carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.

More than 73,000 asylum seekers have been rescued off the coast of Libya and brought to Italy this year, on top of the 181,000 who arrived last year, and Rome’s patience is running out.

The vast majority are economic migrants, with Nigerians and Bangladeshi the most numerous nationalities, followed by people from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Senegal.

In the space of just 48 hours this week, 10,000 were pulled from leaking rubber dinghies and decrepit wooden boats and safely transported to Sicily and other parts of southern Italy.

Paolo Gentiloni, the prime minister, says the situation is no longer sustainable unless Italy receives a lot more help from the rest of the EU.

Italy is “a country under pressure, and we ask the help of our European allies," he said on Thursday at a press conference in Berlin.

The government said on Wednesday that unless the burden is shared more equitably, it would consider blocking foreign NGOs from disembarking migrants at its ports.  A host of humanitarian groups are rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, including Spanish, French and German organisations.

Italy has mooted the idea of some of the migrants being unloaded in ports in other Mediterranean nations, such as Spain and France – a proposal that would likely prove politically toxic for those countries’ governments.

"Politically, the situation is not good for Italy. If the arrival figures keep on rising, Rome will be in trouble," an EU diplomat told Reuters. "But there are no easy solutions. I don't think others would be happy to accept these vessels in their ports."

In response to the Italian threat, the EU on Thursday pledged more financial support and urged Italy not to act hastily.

"We support and we understand Italy's concern and we support their call for a change in the situation," said Natasha Bertaud, European Commission spokeswoman.  "But what we're also saying is that any change in policy should first be discussed with other member states, and also properly communicated to the NGOs who are running these boats so that they have time to prepare."

Under EU rules, a migrant must apply for asylum in the country in which he or she first arrives, placing an enormous burden on Italy to house and feed the migrants while they wait for their applications to be processed.

The number of arrivals so far this year is up by 14 per cent compared with the same period last year and the Italians fear the total could reach more than 220,000 by December.

With migrant reception centres full to bursting and many asylum seekers living rough in Italy’s major cities, the country’s patience with Europe is wearing thin.

In local elections this week, the ruling Democratic Party, which has been broadly welcoming to migrants, took a pasting, while centre-Right parties towing a harder line triumphed.

“The government must block the boats that are heading towards Italy and ask the EU to redirect them to other ports in the Mediterranean,” said Renato Brunetta, a senior figure in the centre-Right Forza Italia party of Silvio Berlusconi.

“We are facing an invasion by foreigners,” said Maurizio Gasparri, another Right-wing politician.

Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, said: “A cry of alarm has come from Italy, an SOS…we can't leave it on its own. After the closure of the Balkan route, it is indispensable to also close the central Mediterranean one. We can't have any more delays in solving the problem".


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/29/italy-threatens-close-ports-ships-carrying-rescued-migrants/

Italy threatens to close ports to NGO migrant rescue ships

The Washington Post

By Nicole Winfield and Lorne Cook | AP

28.06.2017

ROME — Italy threatened Wednesday to close its ports to aid groups rescuing migrants off Libya’s coast as it struggles to cope with the highest rate of rescues this year, officials said.

Italy’s ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, raised the issue during a meeting with EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, as a half-dozen different ships offloaded some of the more than 10,000 migrants rescued in recent days.

“Italy is right that the situation is untenable along the Central Mediterranean route,” Avramopoulos said in a statement, adding that other EU members concurred and that the bloc was ready to increase financial assistance to help Italy manage the flows.

Italy, however, is mulling a ban on non-Italian flagged rescue ships disembarking migrants in Italian ports, though not those participating in the EU’s Frontex rescue operation, officials said. That would affect mostly European-based humanitarian rescue ships, which have flooded the waters off Libya’s coast in the past year to pick up migrants.

Some of those groups have also been accused by Italian prosecutors of alleged collusion with Libyan-based smugglers.

On Wednesday alone, ships from aid groups MOAS and Doctors Without Borders, as well as Frontex ships, arrived in Italian ports with the more than 10,000 migrants rescued in recent days.

“In the latest years, smugglers often launched a massive number of boats all at the same time, but this year we are witnessing levels never registered before in short periods of time,” Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in a statement.

Italian coast guard reported that at least 2,400 migrants were due to arrive on Thursday aboard both Frontex and aid group rescue ships in ports in Sicily and mainland Italy.

If Italy goes ahead with its threat, EU Frontex operations would not be up for discussion since they are governed by international law. But Avramopoulos’s office said any change in Italian policy regarding aid groups should be discussed ahead of time to give them time to prepare. The commission will help inform the discussions and is ready to provide guidance on disembarkation, it said.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-seeks-more-eu-support-amid-wave-of-migrant-arrivals/2017/06/28/4dc67614-5c1c-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html?utm_term=.eb4ed5653bcb

Italy threatens to turn away foreign ships with rescued migrants

Deutsche Welle

By Jane Mcintosh (with DPA, Reuters, AFP, EPD)

28.06.2017


Italy's envoy to the EU has said it is unsustainable for all migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean to land on his country's shores. Over 10,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Italy over the last few days.

Italy's ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, was given a formal mandate by his government to raise the issue with European Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Wednesday. According to Italian officials, the move represented "a formal diplomatic gesture" representing Rome's discontent with the current situation.

Avramopoulos responded via Twitter that he had discussed with the Italian envoy "our support after increasing numbers of arrivals in Italy."

It is unsustainable, Italian diplomatic sources said, that all rescue ships should land in Italy.

"The ambassador highlighted that Italy's efforts have been enormous and well beyond international obligations, and under the current circumstances it is difficult for our authorities to allow further disembarkations of migrants," an Italian diplomat cited by German news agency dpa said.

"In everything we do, we all have a humanitarian obligation to save lives," EU commissioner Avramopolous said on Wednesday. "Of course, we cannot leave a handful of EU countries on their own to deal with this," he added.

Germany extends Mediterranean operation

Germany's Bundestag agreed on Thursday to extend its military operation in the Mediterranean, following Italy's proclamations.

Operation Sophia, which involves up to 950 members of the Bundeswehr, was extended by one year to June 2018.

The operation aims to combat smuggling operations and prevent illegal arms trafficking but critics said their ongoing rescue almost than 40,000 refugees plays into the hands of smugglers and encourages their actions.

According to the Ministry of Defense, more than a hundred suspected human smugglers have been arrested since August 2016 by the operation, which operates in the waters between Italy and Libya.

Among other European nations sending ships to take part in Operation Sophia are Germany, Belgium and most recently Spain, whose frigate Victoria left Rota last week to join the EU operation:

Fabrice Leggeri, the executive director of the EU's border agency Frontex, said on Wednesday the arrival of high numbers of boats from Libya was "extremely worrying."

"This year we are witnessing levels never registered before in short periods of time," Leggeri added.

Unsustainable pressure on Italy

According to Italian diplomatic sources, if the situation does not change, Italy may be forced to deny non-Italian-flagged ships or vessels that are not part of European missions permission to dock at its ports.

This would endanger the work of various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and possibly prevent non-Italian merchant vessels carrying out rescue operations in the Mediterranean from bringing people to Italian ports. It is a legal obligation for all vessels, including commercial ships, to rescue people in distress on the high seas.

Rome's message is that Italy is facing a serious situation and Europe cannot look the other way. At last week's EU summit, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni failed to convince his EU partners to take in more asylum-seekers.

According to data from the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Wednesday of last week, 76,873 migrants had landed on Italian shores since the start of the year. The figure represents a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2016 and does not include the roughly 10,000 migrants saved in the Mediterranean Sea in recent days who are still in transit towards Italian shores. The number of arrivals is expected to increase further during the warm summer months.

NGOs under pressure

Among the NGOs rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean is Doctors without Borders (MSF). On Wednesday it reported its ship Aquarius had 1,032 rescued people on board.

MSF reported that a quarter of all those fleeing Libya are women and children:

Any change for migrant landings could affect several German vessels operated by German sea rescue charities, such as Jugend Rettet and Sea Watch.

Domestic agenda

Italy's ruling, center-left Democratic party has come under pressure over the migrant issue. In municipal elections earlier in June, center-right opposition parties made substantial gains with a number of politicians taking a tough stand on immigration.

The head of the conservative Northern League, Matteo Salvini, resorted to a slogan "stop the invasion" as he spoke out against migrant arrivals in Italy.

The populist Five Star Movement has also called for a halt to new migrant arrivals in Rome.

On Wednesday, the opposition Forza Italia party of former premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government had responded to its urgings for a tougher line on migration.


Source:  http://www.dw.com/en/italy-threatens-to-turn-away-foreign-ships-with-rescued-migrants/a-39462522

"Blaming the Rescuers" - A "fake news" NGO study

30 June 2017

A closer look at the recently published study "Blaming the rescuers" shows that it is a politically motivated "fake news" study written by NGOs for NGOs.

The alarm bells should already be ringing not only by reading the title "Blaming the Rescuers - Criminalizing Solidarity, Re-enforcing Deterrence" but also by taking a look at who the authors of the study Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani are.

Charles Heller is not only "a declared enemy of closed borders", but also a co-founder of "Watch the Med" project which is designed to facilitate information and assistance to illegal immigrants across the Mediterranean.

Both authors are members of the "Forensic Architecture Agency" directed by Eyal Weizman at the "Goldsmiths", University of London, which is a Fine Arts College.

The "FAA" works closely with NGOs and human rights organizations and specializes at the same time in "blurring" of boundaries between science and activism.

The work of "FAA" is political and their mission statement was reported as early as 2016 by the Swiss "Tageswoche" - Charles Heller's "Watch the Med" project is an example of activism and political character of the "FAA".

Acknowledgments are no coincidence

It is therefore no coincidence that the study explicitly thanks the following entities: "Watch the Med, Migreurop, Boats4People, EuroMed Rights networks, Statewatch, Amnesty International, ARCI, Meltingpot and Borderline Sicily".

Also explicitly the SAR-NGOs are being thanked, including Doctors Without Borders and Sea Watch, who are active in the Mediterranean. The Sea Watch for example is outraged with the fact that migrants were brought back to Libyan ports and the Boats4People calls for "rigid controls in the Mediterranean to be lifted".

Outrageous argumentation

The authors are trying to justify the activities of NGOs. They want to prove that the activity of the trafficking NGOs is not a "pull factor" making at the same time copious amount of mistakes. Instead of explaining why the NGOs are not a "pull factor" it is only explained that the figures have risen in comparison with the previous years. The fact that NGOs have made this possible by de facto taking over the role of state agencies is simply blurred out. One of the evidences used is that there was a 46 % migratory rise on the "West African" route. In factual terms, there were only 11,000 migrants in 2016 compared to more than 180,000 on the "Central Mediterranean" route. The reasons for such an increase are simply omitted and not discussed.

Another argument used is the fact that the traffickers, because of the destruction of their ships, have started to use inflatable rubber boats which are not capable of crossing the Mediterranean.
This is not responsibility of the NGOs but is skillfully concealed that the activity of the traffickers can only be carried out by picking up migrants directly off the Libyan Coast.

The NGO madness in the Mediterranean

"The arrival increase has nothing to do with the activities of NGOs" - this claim among others is based on the comments made by "some" government representatives. Statements made by the representatives of governmental agencies which did not suit the authors were simply ignored.

For example statement of Fabrice Leggeri in an interview with the German "Die Welt" newspaper:
"We need to prevent the fact that we are not supporting the criminal networks and traffickers in Libya and that the migrants are not picked up by the European ships increasingly closer to the Libyan Coast".

In the meantime it is known that the NGOs not only cooperate with Libyan traffickers but even partially pay them.

Not a word is mentioned of the fact that all the authorities of the Italian and Austrian foreign ministries, Frontex and the Libyan Coast Guard demand a tougher action against the NGOs, accusing them of causing a major “pull effect”. Also concealed is the fact that NGOs actively hinder the work of authorities and make investigation against traffickers even more difficult.

Even the older "study" is politically motivated

Incidentally it is not a study but only a "guest blog post", nevertheless it is referred to as a "study of the University of Oxford and the Scuola Normal Superiore" - "Border Deaths in the Mediterranean: What We Can Learn from the Latest Data" by Elias Steinhilper and Rob Gruijters. Both authors are left-wing activists and very good friends from the Humboldt University in Berlin. Steinhilper is a "PhD candidate in Political Science and Sociology at Scuola Normal Superiore in Florenc" and Gruijters is "postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford." Facts: Steinhilper is active in several "refugee initiatives" and is working on a promotion for the "Transnationalization of Refugee protests in Europe".

Misleading comparisons

Also these two authors wanted to prove that the activity of NGOs had no effect on the number of migrants and failed critically. A cardinal failure of the misleading analysis should be mentioned here. The article compares everything, but not the actual number of illegal migrants with the expected migrants in the same period without NGO activities. The authors simply conceal the fact that without NGO activities, almost not a single migrant could come cross the Mediterranean and the number of crossings would be minimal.

This is particularly interesting because the policy in Australia has already proven these facts:
"Most began their journey in Indonesian harbors on desolate boats, hoping for a new beginning in affluent Australia.  The arrival peak reached in the election year of 2013 over 20,000 people on 300 boats. [...]  Immediately after the change of Government the number of boats fell drastically. In 2014 only one boat was registered - and since then no one landed any more. The Navy ships blocked 30 boats with 765 individuals".

Conclusion

The authors attempt with their pseudo-scientific studies to whitewash and justify the illegal activities of NGOs. The studies are written by NGOs and for NGOs and are not only flawed, but also politically motivated.

The reason for this kind of reports is the growing criticism of the trafficking NGO activities. The voices are getting louder and an imminent action against them is becoming more and more likely.


The Authors:

* "Charles Heller | openDemocracy": https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/charles-heller
* "Lorenzo Pezzani": http://www.gold.ac.uk/architecture/research-students/past-phd-students/lorenzo-pezzani/
* "Elias Steinhilper - Refugee Research Network": http://fluechtlingsforschung.net/team-manager/elias-steinhilper/
* "Rob Gruijters": https://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/academic-staff/rob-gruijters.html


Source:

* "Rescue operations off Libya must be scrutinised" / "Rettungseinsätze vor Libyen müssen auf den Prüfstand": https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article162394787/Rettungseinsaetze-vor-Libyen-muessen-auf-den-Pruefstand.html
* "Charities 'colluding' with smugglers: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39686239
* "Charities ‘pay people traffickers’": http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4592108/Charities-pay-people-traffickers-ferry-migrants.html
* "Traffickers may pay some NGOs-prosecutor": http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2017/04/27/traffickers-may-pay-some-ngos-prosecutor_c737218a-b7dc-44ef-ac6a-d7d648c175b7.html
* "NGO rescues off Libya encourage traffickers, says EU borders chief": https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/27/ngo-rescues-off-libya-encourage-traffickers-eu-borders-chief
* "Italy calls for police to be deployed on migrant rescue boats": https://www.thelocal.it/20170517/italy-calls-for-police-to-be-deployed-on-migrant-rescue-boats
* "Kurz: The NGO madness must be end" / Kurz: "Der NGO-Wahnsinn muss beendet werden": http://diepresse.com/home/ausland/eu/5189256/Kurz_Der-NGOWahnsinn-muss-beendet-werden
* "Libyan Navy claims German NGO hindered migrant rescue": http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2017/05/11/libyan-navy-claims-german-ngo-hindered-migrant-rescue_e3c044e4-6eea-441a-9b98-d8916235ef39.html?idPhoto=1
* "Frontex director criticizes rescue operations of NGOs in the Mediterranean" / "Frontex-Direktor kritisiert Rettungseinsätze von NGOs im Mittelmeer": http://derstandard.at/2000053228568/Frontex-Direktor-kritisiert-Rettungseinsaetze-im-Mittelmeer
* "NGOs fuel human trafficking - “NPQ” Nonprofit Quarterly" : https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/06/15/ngo-anti-smuggling-efforts-end-fueling-human-smuggling/
* "Efforts to Rescue Migrants Caused Deadly, Unexpected Consequences": https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/14/world/europe/migrant-rescue-efforts-deadly.html?mcubz=2

Documents:

* "FRONTEX Triton Analytical Report -December 2016": https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3531244/Frontex-Triton-Analytical-Report-December-2016.pdf
* "FRONTEX - Risk Analysis for 2017" -  report: http://frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/Annual_Risk_Analysis_2017.pdf
* "Caught in the act: NGOs deal in migrant smuggling": https://gefira.org/en/2016/11/15/caught-in-the-act-ngos-deal-in-migrant-smuggling/


Additional sources:

* "Blaming the rescuers": https://blamingtherescuers.org/acknowledgements/
* "This Swiss is using Big Data to prevent dying in the Mediterranean" / "Dieser Schweizer geht mit Big Data gegen das Sterben auf dem Mittelmeer vor": https://tageswoche.ch/gesellschaft/dieser-schweizer-geht-mit-big-data-gegen-das-sterben-auf-dem-mittelmeer-vor/
* "Watch the Med": http://watchthemed.net/
* "Forensic Architecture agency": http://www.forensic-architecture.org/
* "Borderline Sicily": http://migrantsicily.blogspot.de/2012/02/borderline-sicilia-onlus.html
* "Border Deaths in the Mediterranean: What We Can Learn from the Latest Data": https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/03/border-deaths

"Shuttle service to Italy" - German Government interior expert Stephan Mayer criticizes NGOs.

11 June 2017

Stephan Mayer, Bundestag CDU/CSU spokesman for interior affairs sharply criticized the help of NGOs. In his opinion the traffickers are deliberately sending migrants in unseaworthy boats "since they can safely assume that they will be picked up by the rescue boats crossing only a few hundred meters or a few kilometers".

"This is de facto a shuttle service to Italian mainland and the Italian islands". "In my opinion, this approach is not practical in the long term." says Mayer in an interview with the German State TV "ZDF".

11.06.2017 on Twitter:

"Refugee rescue actions in the Mediterranean? Stop it! Wrong!" / "Rettungsaktionen für Flüchtlinge im Mittelmeer? Aufhören! Falsch!"

Source: https://twitter.com/berlindirekt/status/873877101564317697