EUObserver | 07.07.2017
By GIULIA LAGANÀ
Last week, as health workers, volunteers and police officers in southern Italian ports scrambled to identify, assist and send over 10,000 newly arrived migrants to reception facilities, the Italian government threatened to stop allowing NGO rescue ships to disembark migrants at its ports.
The EU and its member states acknowledged that Italy’s capacity to host those attempting the sea crossing from Libya is reaching its limits, but did very little to help beyond pledging some additional funds and endorsing an Italian proposal to draft a code of conduct for the NGOs.
Some governments, including the German and Belgian ones, stated publicly that they would not take in any of the rescued migrants, while Austria threatened to send its army to seal the border with Italy.
The Italian government is right to claim that other EU states are failing to provide meaningful support by taking in some of the people who are arriving, and that it is currently managing the main source of irregular migration to Europe single-handedly.
However, Italy has chosen to respond to a real problem with the wrong solution.