Rescue boat defies ban: Shipwrecked migrants disembark in Italy

ROME: Dozens of shipwrecked migrants disembarked in Italy early on Sunday after their rescue boat docked on the island of Lampedusa, the second vessel in a week to defy efforts to stop them by far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Some 41 people were finally allowed to step off migrant rescue charity Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex, which arrived at the port on Saturday in an overnight operation that saw the ship temporarily seized by authorities.

The boat’s captain Tommaso Stella is being investigated for allegedly aiding illegal immigration, according to the Italian news agency Agi. It is the second vessel in just over a week to defy Salvini’s attempts to block Italian ports to rescue ships, as tensions increase over the international response to the migration crisis.

A third boat that had also been waiting off Lampedusa, the German charity Sea-Eye’s vessel Alan Kurdi carrying 65 migrants, was sailing towards Malta on Sunday, even though it has not received permission to enter Maltese waters.

The charity said it could not "wait until the state of emergency prevails" in a message on Twitter. "Now it has to be proven whether the European governments stand by Italy’s attitude. Human lives are not a bargaining chip," it added.

Salvini last month issued a decree that would bring fines of up to 50,000 euros for the captain, owner and operator of a vessel "entering Italian territorial waters without authorisation".

After the Alex reached port, the populist deputy prime minister said that he would raise the maximum fine to one million euros. "I do not authorise any landing for those who couldn’t care less about Italian laws and help the people smugglers," Salvini tweeted late on Saturday.

Mediterranean said it had sailed to "the only possible safe port for landing", citing "intolerable hygiene conditions aboard" in a tweet on Saturday. Authorities on Lampedusa in late June seized a rescue ship belonging to German aid group Sea-Watch, which had forced its way into port with dozens of rescued migrants on board, and arrested its captain Carola Rackete.