Italy’s government is targeting NGOs saving people at sea. It is nothing new.
I was there the first time around – and so were many journalists. At @open_migration we told the story of the dirty war waged against NGOs saving lives.
This story starts on Easter weekend, 2017.
During that weekend, 8,300 people were rescued in the Mediterranean: 1,300 by Frontex and the others by several NGOs in coordination with the Italian Coast Guard.
@Giu_Bertoluzzi was on board of one of the ships – this is her logbook:
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/the-eight-thousand-migrants-saved-at-easter-logbook-of-a-rescue-missi
“Too smart for their own good” (Renzi, then Italy’s PM), “Taxi cabs for migrants” (Di Maio).
That weekend marked the start of the smear campaign against NGOs: @Lorenzo_Bagnoli @FraFloris made sense of the mix of unfounded claims and accusations:
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/accusations-against-ngos-at-sea-what-is-false-or-misleading-in-that-s
It was also the start of the infamous “pull factor” claim, coming – no surprise – from Fabrice Leggeri, then executive director of Frontex.
He would become a central figure in this political game - this is the last we heard of him:
►https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/fabrice-leggeri-s-resignation-the-final-days-of-the-frontex-chief-a-a238224a
That summer the Mediterranean was the scene of a brutal political game, with the Italian government working to delegitimize NGOs.
“They have been forced to back away from, sometimes even renounce, their role in rescuing migrants” explained @alaskaHQ.
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/eight-things-we-have-learnt-from-the-papers-on-the-iuventa
A main feature was of course the Minniti-sponsored code of conduct for NGOs.
This legitimized the idea that they were acting in anarchy before this measures, while all the while they had been working under the Rome command of the Italian Coast Guard.
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/what-is-changing-in-the-med-five-things-you-must-know
The militarisation of the Mediterranean continued throughout 2018, with a critical point with the seizure of Open Arms and accusations of criminal conspiracy and aiding illegal immigration.
@alaskaHQ @Lorenzo_Bagnoli and @clatorrisi reported:
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/the-prosecutors-case-against-the-rescue-ship-open-arms
Accusations were dropped and one month later the Open Arms was free to sail again.
(Meanwhile Frontex was relaunching fears of terrorist attacks while introducing its new programme to secure European borders)
▻https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/the-open-arms-case-continued-new-documents-and-malta
I’d like for this story to have an end but there isn’t one.
In 2017, Easter weekend marked the start of a dirty, dirty war that has claimed thousand of lives. NGOs were witnesses that the EU and the Italian government did not want around.
And that is still the case.
#chronologie #criminalisation_du_sauvetage #sauvetage #migrations #asile #réfugiés #Méditerranée #mer_Méditerranée #taxi #taxi_del_mare #pull_factor #facteur_pull #rhétorique #solidarité #Di_Maio #Luigi_Di_Maio #Matteo_Renzi #Renzi #Italie #rhétorique #accusations #Leggeri #Fabrizio_Leggeri #Frontex #codice_di_condotta #Minniti