Aquarius missions on
Uighur man wrongfully deported
ON BOARD THE AQUARIUS, Aug 6, (Agencies): Rescue ship Aquarius, which has picked up almost 3,000 migrants from the Mediterranean this year, will carry out rescue missions without waiting for orders from coastguards and will not return people to Libya, its search and rescue head said.
“When we see there is a vessel in distress, with a high likelihood of people dying, we will go and rescue them immediately as per international maritime law,” Nick Romaniuk told Reuters on board the Aquarius.
Over the last year coordination centres asking rescue vessels to go on standby or wait for clarification on certain things had added to the danger of people needing to be rescued, which is why they would no longer wait, he added.
The 77-metre vessel, operated by Franco-German charity SOS Mediterranee, set sail from Marseille this week on its tenth mission of the year.
The ship will be patrolling between 25-30 miles from the Libyan coast, west of Tripoli, an area that is outside Libya’s territorial waters but inside the Libyan search and rescue region.
International law states the country responsible for operations in an area has primary responsibility for disembarking rescue ships.
Romaniuk said that while Aquarius would continue to abide by international maritime law, it would not be taking people back to Libya because it was not a safe place, putting it at odds with the wishes of the new Italian government.
In the past the Aquarius has waited for orders from the responsible authorities before moving ahead to rescue migrants aiming to reach Italy from Libya.
But Italy has toughened its stance since the new government, a coalition including the anti-immigrant League party, took office earlier this year.
Interior minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, has spearheaded a policy to shut ports to charity ships that pick up migrants from
to conscription but wants to discuss a vaguely defined “general service obligation” as a possible plank of a future party platform. She left open whether it should
This handout picture taken and released by the Grisons Cantonal Police (Police Cantonale des Grisons) on Aug 5, shows the wreckage of a Junkers JU52 aircraft in Flims after it crashed into Piz Segnas, a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) peak in eastern Switzerland on Aug 4. (AFP)
overcrowded smugglers’ boats. He now wants as many as possible to be picked up by Libyan coastguards and returned.
In June, the Aquarius picked up 629 migrants off the coast of Libya, planning to take them to the nearest European port - the usual practice with such rescue missions.
But the Italian government asked the ship to go to Malta rather than Italy, triggering a standoff that drew in the European Union and France.
Salvini has accused SOS Mediterranee and other charities of acting like a Mediterranean “taxi service” for the migrants.
The Aquarius is one of a number of NGO-supported ships that have carried out rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean, alongside the Italian navy and EU-led missions.
A rescue boat operated by the Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms this week rescued 87 migrants in the southern Mediterranean in international waters.
More than 10,000 migrants have drowned in the region since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
BERLIN:
Also:
German authorities wrongfully deported an Uighur man to China due to an administrative error, local media reported Monday, in a fresh scandal as the country seeks to step up expulsions of failed asylum seekers.
Officials were due to hold a hearing with the 22-year-old Uighur, who was not named, on April 3 over his asylum application, said regional public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR).
But a fax announcing the hearing from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) apparently failed to reach local authorities in Bavaria, who, in the early hours of April 3, put the Uighur man on a plane to Beijing.
“We were unable to find the fax despite an intensive search,” Munich authorities told BR.
be compulsory.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the ex-defense minister who scrapped conscription, told Monday’s edition of the Bild daily that financing civilian service for up to 700,000 young people per year would carry “exorbitant costs.” He cautioned that the constitution “doesn’t foresee such compulsory, or forced, work assignments.” (AP)
Civil protection chief resigns:
The head of Greece’s civil protection department resigned on Monday, a day after the government replaced the chiefs of its police force and fire brigade after a public outcry over a wildfire that killed more than 90 people on July 23.
Yannis Kapakis, 60, the secretary general of the civil protection department (GSCP), submitted his resignation to Interior Minister Panos Skourletis, a ministry official said.
Kapakis had previously served in the fire service, retiring in 2013 with the rank of brigadier general.
The GSCP’s mission is to design and plan actions related to the risk assessment, prevention and responses to natural disasters and emergencies. It also coordinates rehabilitation operations and informs the public on these issues. (RTRS)