Cebu_4_2
24th June 2018, 10:57 AM
Italy orders seven boats with 1,000 migrants on board to go back to Libya days after turning away another ship carrying 234 people
NGO Proactiva Open Arms said Italy wants the Libyan coast guard to intervene
The Italian coast guard apparently told the aid group: 'We don't need your help'
Hard-line minister Matteo Salvini told NGOs not to 'interrupt' Libyan authorities
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5880003/Italy-order.html
Italy is seeking to have seven boats carrying roughly 1,000 migrants needing rescue off Libya taken back to North Africa, according to a Spanish aid group.
Proactiva Open Arms, which has rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean, said the Italians want the Libyan coast guard to conduct the rescues and return the migrants.
Proactiva said in a tweet that Italian coast guard authorities who coordinate rescues sent out advisories to all ships in the area but told the aid group: 'We don't need your help.'
In a tweet on Sunday, hard-line interior minister Matteo Salvini said: 'It's right that the Libyan authorities intervene, as they've been doing for days, without having the NGOs interrupt them and disturb them.'
It comes days after Salvini refused to let a rescue boat with 224 migrants on board dock in Italy, saying those on board 'will only see Italy on a postcard'.
Salvini said the ship, operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, had loaded the migrants in Libyan waters against the instructions of Italy's coast guard.
Mission Lifeline denied Salvini's claims, saying it conducted the rescue in international waters and asked for a safe port, which had not been assigned.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colao, who has previously offered her city as a port when Italy refused entry a rescue ship, repeated her willingness to take in the migrants.
She urged her country's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to intervene to allow Proactiva's ship to 'save lives.'
Colao said: 'Italy wants to leave the migrants in the hands of Libya, where they torture, rape and enslave' migrants.
Malta's home affairs minister, Michael Farrugia, and Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, also engaged in a Twitter war of words Sunday over which country was being more 'inhuman' about the fate of the Lifeline and its passengers.
Italy has demanded Malta let the Lifeline dock since it's currently in Maltese waters. Farrugia tweeted Sunday 'Why weren't they allowed to dock immediately in Italy, like Italy is now asking Malta? That's the true inhumanity.'
The new anti-migrant government in Rome has refused to let aid groups dock in Italian ports, arguing they are encouraging smugglers.
Salvini has threatened that Italy will withhold its payments to the EU if it does not get more help on the migrant issue.
But Italy's rescue coordination centre had still engaged with the groups at sea during actual rescues up until Sunday.
Italy's populist 5-Star Movement demands that European countries act to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants on the continent, warning that the future of Europe is at stake.
The 5-Stars, who are in a ruling coalition with the anti-migrant League party, penned a blog entitled The Migrant Hypocrisy Sinks Europe as EU leaders met in Brussels on migration.
The post complained that few countries came close to accepting the redistributed migrants they pledged to under a failed 2015 EU plan to ease the burden on Italy and Greece.
The post said: 'It's time for Europe to find itself again in the principles that everyone preaches, but few sincerely practice,' saying what is at stake is 'the future of Europe as a political community and its values.'
Greek port is overrun with migrants trying to stow away to Italy
Italy's new far-right interior minister: League leader Matteo Salvini cracks down on migrants
With his 'Italians first' rallying cry and his tub-thumping against Islam and a 'migrant invasion', Matteo Salvini has rebranded himself and his party to become both interior minister and joint deputy prime minister.
As leader of the right-wing League, the 45-year-old's new job allows him to focus on the chief aspects of his election campaign - stopping illegal immigration and deporting those who have already arrived.
Salvini was sworn in as interior minister after striking a last-gasp deal to form a government with the Five Star Movement, an agreement that brought Italy a populist government after nearly three months of post-electoral deadlock.
He took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March's election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.
Since taking over the old Northern League in 2013, Salvini has ridden a wave of public discontent, playing on anti-immigrant sentiment as he sought to shift the party's image from defender of the wealthy north against its 'parasite' south, to that of guardian of Italy's national sovereignty.
Since Salvini took over the League, nearly 700,000 people have landed in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean, sparking a sense of resentment among many Italians who feel Europe has abandoned them.
Salvini was in 2009 caught on video singing songs about 'stinking' Neapolitans and in 2012 said the south did not deserve the euro.
But he represents impoverished southern region Calabria in the Senate and has redirected his regional chauvinism to take the League nationwide.
Born and raised in Milan in 1973, Salvini joined what was then the Northern League in 1990, aged just 17, rising quickly through the ranks.
At the time, the Northern League was a regional party known for its separatist campaign to secede from Italy.
Salvini ran its Radio Padania, the referring to the wealthier northern region they wanted to see independent.
One of his shows was called 'Never Say Italy' and in 2011, he won notoriety for boycotting Italy's 150-year anniversary celebrations, putting his desk outside Milan city hall to show he was working.
'The Tricolore doesn't represent me,' Salvini said of the Italian flag in 2014.
But by 2018, he was campaigning as far south as Matera in the impoverished Basilicata region, where he promised 'order, rules, cleanliness' and railed against 'out of control' immigration.
In a video on his Facebook page, which has more than two million fans, Salvini said he would work to 'stop the landings' once in power.
He opposes same-sex unions wants to deport foreign criminals and sparked outrage on Monday when he promised a head count of Italy's Roma community and to throw out those without legal status.
And as talks were under way to form the new government, he posted a photo of himself standing next to a bulldozer on Twitter with the message: 'We're working for you.'
Since taking over the League, Salvini has forged alliances with other far-right Europeans like France's National Front and Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders.
Despite positive words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Salvini in 2013 called the EU a 'gulag' like the 'Soviet Union' saying he would work to try and leave it.
A savvy social media user, he has managed to successfully push his agenda online, updating his followers daily with constant updates, live videos, photos and even pictures of what he eats.
Although happy to talk about his two children - 14-year-old Federico and Mirta, five - he is less happy to discuss his complicated love life.
Currently living with glamorous model and TV presenter Elisa Isoardi, his children are from two previous relationships, one with ex-wife Fabrizia Ieluzzi, a political journalist, and the other with former girlfriend Giulia Martinelli.
NGO Proactiva Open Arms said Italy wants the Libyan coast guard to intervene
The Italian coast guard apparently told the aid group: 'We don't need your help'
Hard-line minister Matteo Salvini told NGOs not to 'interrupt' Libyan authorities
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5880003/Italy-order.html
Italy is seeking to have seven boats carrying roughly 1,000 migrants needing rescue off Libya taken back to North Africa, according to a Spanish aid group.
Proactiva Open Arms, which has rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean, said the Italians want the Libyan coast guard to conduct the rescues and return the migrants.
Proactiva said in a tweet that Italian coast guard authorities who coordinate rescues sent out advisories to all ships in the area but told the aid group: 'We don't need your help.'
In a tweet on Sunday, hard-line interior minister Matteo Salvini said: 'It's right that the Libyan authorities intervene, as they've been doing for days, without having the NGOs interrupt them and disturb them.'
It comes days after Salvini refused to let a rescue boat with 224 migrants on board dock in Italy, saying those on board 'will only see Italy on a postcard'.
Salvini said the ship, operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, had loaded the migrants in Libyan waters against the instructions of Italy's coast guard.
Mission Lifeline denied Salvini's claims, saying it conducted the rescue in international waters and asked for a safe port, which had not been assigned.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colao, who has previously offered her city as a port when Italy refused entry a rescue ship, repeated her willingness to take in the migrants.
She urged her country's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to intervene to allow Proactiva's ship to 'save lives.'
Colao said: 'Italy wants to leave the migrants in the hands of Libya, where they torture, rape and enslave' migrants.
Malta's home affairs minister, Michael Farrugia, and Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, also engaged in a Twitter war of words Sunday over which country was being more 'inhuman' about the fate of the Lifeline and its passengers.
Italy has demanded Malta let the Lifeline dock since it's currently in Maltese waters. Farrugia tweeted Sunday 'Why weren't they allowed to dock immediately in Italy, like Italy is now asking Malta? That's the true inhumanity.'
The new anti-migrant government in Rome has refused to let aid groups dock in Italian ports, arguing they are encouraging smugglers.
Salvini has threatened that Italy will withhold its payments to the EU if it does not get more help on the migrant issue.
But Italy's rescue coordination centre had still engaged with the groups at sea during actual rescues up until Sunday.
Italy's populist 5-Star Movement demands that European countries act to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants on the continent, warning that the future of Europe is at stake.
The 5-Stars, who are in a ruling coalition with the anti-migrant League party, penned a blog entitled The Migrant Hypocrisy Sinks Europe as EU leaders met in Brussels on migration.
The post complained that few countries came close to accepting the redistributed migrants they pledged to under a failed 2015 EU plan to ease the burden on Italy and Greece.
The post said: 'It's time for Europe to find itself again in the principles that everyone preaches, but few sincerely practice,' saying what is at stake is 'the future of Europe as a political community and its values.'
Greek port is overrun with migrants trying to stow away to Italy
Italy's new far-right interior minister: League leader Matteo Salvini cracks down on migrants
With his 'Italians first' rallying cry and his tub-thumping against Islam and a 'migrant invasion', Matteo Salvini has rebranded himself and his party to become both interior minister and joint deputy prime minister.
As leader of the right-wing League, the 45-year-old's new job allows him to focus on the chief aspects of his election campaign - stopping illegal immigration and deporting those who have already arrived.
Salvini was sworn in as interior minister after striking a last-gasp deal to form a government with the Five Star Movement, an agreement that brought Italy a populist government after nearly three months of post-electoral deadlock.
He took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March's election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.
Since taking over the old Northern League in 2013, Salvini has ridden a wave of public discontent, playing on anti-immigrant sentiment as he sought to shift the party's image from defender of the wealthy north against its 'parasite' south, to that of guardian of Italy's national sovereignty.
Since Salvini took over the League, nearly 700,000 people have landed in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean, sparking a sense of resentment among many Italians who feel Europe has abandoned them.
Salvini was in 2009 caught on video singing songs about 'stinking' Neapolitans and in 2012 said the south did not deserve the euro.
But he represents impoverished southern region Calabria in the Senate and has redirected his regional chauvinism to take the League nationwide.
Born and raised in Milan in 1973, Salvini joined what was then the Northern League in 1990, aged just 17, rising quickly through the ranks.
At the time, the Northern League was a regional party known for its separatist campaign to secede from Italy.
Salvini ran its Radio Padania, the referring to the wealthier northern region they wanted to see independent.
One of his shows was called 'Never Say Italy' and in 2011, he won notoriety for boycotting Italy's 150-year anniversary celebrations, putting his desk outside Milan city hall to show he was working.
'The Tricolore doesn't represent me,' Salvini said of the Italian flag in 2014.
But by 2018, he was campaigning as far south as Matera in the impoverished Basilicata region, where he promised 'order, rules, cleanliness' and railed against 'out of control' immigration.
In a video on his Facebook page, which has more than two million fans, Salvini said he would work to 'stop the landings' once in power.
He opposes same-sex unions wants to deport foreign criminals and sparked outrage on Monday when he promised a head count of Italy's Roma community and to throw out those without legal status.
And as talks were under way to form the new government, he posted a photo of himself standing next to a bulldozer on Twitter with the message: 'We're working for you.'
Since taking over the League, Salvini has forged alliances with other far-right Europeans like France's National Front and Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders.
Despite positive words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Salvini in 2013 called the EU a 'gulag' like the 'Soviet Union' saying he would work to try and leave it.
A savvy social media user, he has managed to successfully push his agenda online, updating his followers daily with constant updates, live videos, photos and even pictures of what he eats.
Although happy to talk about his two children - 14-year-old Federico and Mirta, five - he is less happy to discuss his complicated love life.
Currently living with glamorous model and TV presenter Elisa Isoardi, his children are from two previous relationships, one with ex-wife Fabrizia Ieluzzi, a political journalist, and the other with former girlfriend Giulia Martinelli.