Italy’s election winner Giorgia Meloni announces a heavy hand against Mediterranean migrants. Sea Watch is responding by dispatching a new ship to the region. It is better equipped against “attempts at deterrence” than its predecessors.
The German aid organization Sea Watch has announced that it intends to send a new rescue ship to the central Mediterranean. The “Sea Watch 5” is “faster, larger and more efficient than its predecessors,” it said in a statement. According to the organization, it is also responding to the shift to the right in the parliamentary elections in Italy. “Instead of ‘mother, Italian, Christian’, let’s say ‘sea rescue, human rights, Sea-Watch 5’,” explained Sea-Watch board member Johannes Bayer, referring to the self-description of right-wing election winner Giorgia Meloni.
The aid organization called the new ship a “declaration of war on the shift to the right in Italy”. Votes for Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) party and her alliance were also votes “for an illegitimate restriction of the right to asylum and migration,” the statement said. The new ship, which had previously sailed under the name “Ocean Don”, has a length of 58 meters and is “better equipped” against “deterrence attempts” than its predecessors.
In addition to numerous private individuals, the alliance “United4Rescue” was also named as a financial supporter. Deputy Chairwoman Liza Pflaum explained that the new alliance ship “is a strong sign of solidarity and humanity against the deadly isolationist policy of the EU countries”.
In August, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that more than 1,100 people had been killed or missing on the flight route across the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, including more than 900 in the central Mediterranean. This route from North Africa to Europe is considered the most dangerous migration route in the world.
