Crackdown on efforts to save lives
The Aurora, a former RNLI lifeboat, was sold to the British charity Search and Rescue Relief. After they had rescued 85 people in a sinking skiff off the north African coast on 29…
Italy: overcrowded boat with 539 migrants
The Italian coastguard rescued 539 migrants crammed onto a decrepit fishing boat off the tiny southern Italian island of Lampedusa. A Médecins Sans Frontières nurse said the passengers included three women and several…
Italy: another charity rescue boat banned
Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has banned the Alan Kurdi, carrying forty migrants, from entering Italian waters. The boat, run by a German charity, had hoped to dock at Lampedusa. This rescue mission…
Italy: rescue boat defies Salvini, enters port
A German humanitarian group operating a rescue boat with 42 rescued migrants on board was in limbo in the Mediterranean for two weeks after Italy ordered it not to enter its territory. The…