It’s like that frog and scorpion parable, only in real life.
A human smuggling boat runs into trouble in the Mediterranian. They call the Coast Guard for help.
And look how they repay that kindness.
The interior ministry denied a civilian vessel permission to dock at an Italian port after it responded to a distress call and picked up 66 rescued migrants.
The Vos Thalassa is a private boat which works supporting offshore operations by French oil and gas company Total, but on Monday evening the ship responded to a distress call off the Libyan coast. Arriving on the scene before the Libyan Coast Guard, Vos Thalaassa took 66 migrants onboard and requested permission to dock in Italy, which was denied.
The past month has seen Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini of the nationalist League, clamp down on arrivals to the country by sea. The new coalition government set a goal of zero arrivals, and in June triggered an international outcry when it refused to let dock French NGO rescue ship Aquarius carrying 630 migrants, before Spain stepped in to help.
Salvini has said ports will be closed to foreign NGO ships “all summer”, accusing the vessels of aiding people traffickers, and on Sunday he said he would also demand the closure of ports to “ships of international missions” including merchant and military ships carrying migrants.
Source: The Local
So, 66 people were crowded onto one boat, and (surprise, surprise) ran into problems on the open water. They called for help and got some.
What did they do when that help arrived? Thank them? Pledge to name their firstborn after the captain so they’d never forget how he saved their miserable lives?
Nope. They threatened his life.
African migrants threatened to kill the crew of an Italian cargo vessel that had rescued them in the Mediterranean, in an attempt to avoid being returned to detention centres in Libya.
The Italian coastguard picked up the migrants after receiving a call for help from the ship. They were being taken yesterday to Italy where the ringleaders will be questioned by police over the incident.
The mutiny on the Vos Thalassa marked an escalation in problems in the Mediterranean after Italy’s new populist government refused entry to migrants picked up by charity boats and handed over rescue responsibilities to the Libyan coastguard.
Source: Times
Remember when Trump would read that poem about the Snake?
These are precisely the kind of people he was warning us about when he read it.
Do you get the sense that the ‘migrant seeking a better life claim’ is on shaky ground?
