Doctors without Borders denies the accusations and considers the research “disproportionate and unfounded
Spain will host a 15-migrants from the Aquarius following an agreement with France, Malta, Germany and Portugal
The Italian Justice has opened a new investigation against the NGO Doctors without Borders (MSF) and has been ordered to immobilize the vessel Aquarius, which is chartered by the organization from 2016, which remains docked in the French port of Marseille, for an alleged crime of illegal treatment of waste considered hazardous.
The Prosecutor’s office of Catania, on the Italian island of Sicily, accuses the organization of not having carried out a correct differentiation between the residuals normal and those considered to be hazardous in order to save costs, for several scales techniques that boats Vos Prudence and Aquarius were in the ports sicilians of Catania, Augusta, Trapani, Messina and Palermo, between march of 2017 and may of 2018. According to the indictment, the investigation “shared, planned and conducted a project in the criminal for the elimination of illegal huge quantity of hazardous waste with the risk that they are infectious, some health, derived from the activities of relief to immigrants”.
24 people, mostly staff of the humanitarian organization, are being investigated for having performed an illegal treatment of waste in at least 44 times for a total of 24,000 pounds of waste. It is workers of the NGOS aimed at the operating centre of Belgium and Amsterdam, from where they managed the rescue missions. Among those investigated are also the commander and first officer of the Aquarius, as well as the holder and the legal representative of the society of intermediation maritime Mediterranean Shipping Agency.
According to the Italian authorities in the investigation “knew the danger of the clothing of immigrants as a source of transmission of viruses or pathogens contracted during the voyage”, as is evident from “reports written in those cited cases of scabies, HIV, respiratory infections such as tuberculosis and meningitis”, however, the NGO classified as ordinary household waste, as reported in a press release, the Guardia di Finanza Italian this Tuesday.
In one of the transcripts of the wiretaps, the holder of the Mediterranan Shipping Agency, Francesco Gianino, proposes to “competitive prices” -about 8 euros a bag, according to the research – to manage the waste on board the vessel if one does not recognize the existence of possible remains dangerous. This reduction “allow the NGOS to decrease consistently the costs of management of the ships.”
The Prosecution considers that the presence of numerous private boats in the Mediterranean dedicated to the rescue of immigrants has led to a considerable increase of the turnover of the company Gianino, as well as a considerable savings for the NGO. It is for this reason that the Italian justice has provisions in addition to the lock 460,000 euros of the accounts of MSF, which is what allegedly would have saved the organization.
Doctors without Borders denies the accusations and considers the research “disproportionate and unfounded, whose sole purpose is to criminalize the action medical humanitarian in the sea”. “After two years of inquiries, judicial, bureaucratic obstacles, accusations, defamatory statements and never confirmed on complicity with the criminal organizations of trafficking in persons, we are now accused of being part of a criminal organization of trafficking of waste”, has denounced the NGO in a press release. “It’s a new and disturbing attempt to stop at any price the activity of rescue and search at sea.”
The new investigation against the humanitarian organization has been received with satisfaction by the minister of Interior and leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, who in June 2018, with the birth of the new Italian Government, put into the target to humanitarian organizations working in the rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean and closed the ports of Italy to their boats.
Sequestrata ship #Aquarius. the
Ho fatto bene a bloccare le navi delle ONG, ho fermato non solo il rush di immigrati clandestini ma, da quanto emerge, anche quello di rifiuti tossici.#portichiusipic.twitter.com/79GPrejO4h? Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) November 20, 2018
Currently, the ship Aquarius remains docked in the French port of Marseille after Panama withdrew his flag “political pressures”, according to MSF. The NGO also reminded that from 2015 its boats have rescued 80,000 people in cooperation with the maritime authorities and in accordance with Italian laws and international.
According to the criteria of
Learn more