On Monday 31 July, five NGOs refused to sign the code of conduct that Italy is seeking to impose on them for migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, Reuters has reported, quoting the Italian Interior Ministry. Three other groups backed the new rules, which include measures such as banning light signals that might help migrants and banning the transfer of migrants to other vessels.
Rome has warned NGOs that do not sign the code of conduct that they could be refused access to Italian ports (see EUROPE 11824). One of the groups that refused to sign, Médecins sans frontiers/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that it had already complied with various provisions, such as financial transparency, and felt the code of conduct could reduce “the efficiency and capacity of the current search and rescue response” in the Mediterranean, leading to greater loss of life.
The charity vessels have become increasingly important in rescue operations, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought to shore this year, compared with less than one percent in 2014, according to the Italian coast guard.
Those groups which refused to sign up to the new rules had put themselves “outside the organised system of sea rescues, with all the concrete consequences that can have”, the ministry said.
The Commission said on Tuesday 1 August that it had, from the outset backed, the code of conduct which, in theory, aims to better coordinate governmental and NGO rescue operations in the Mediterranean. European home affairs ministers also gave their support to the initiative in Tallinn on 6 July. The Commission, which was consulted by the Italian government on the drafting of the code, called on all the NGOs concerned to sign the document. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)