Before she was elected prime minister, Giorgia Meloni threatened to impose a naval blockade in the Mediterranean Sea to stop boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers from reaching Italy. Her government has now proposed draft legislation that will allow it to do just that.
The bill, approved by the cabinet on February 11, would allow the government to prohibit boats from entering Italian territorial waters “in cases of grave threats to public order or national security.” The bans could be imposed for 30 days, renewable for up to six consecutive months. The grounds for triggering the ban are expansive: a concrete risk of acts of terrorism or infiltration of terrorists on national territory, “exceptional migratory pressure,” a global health emergency, or high-level international events that require extraordinary security measures.
Under the legislation, Italy would interdict boats and return everyone on board, apparently without any assessment of their protection needs, vulnerabilities, or physical and mental health, to third countries with which Italy has such an agreement. The European Parliament recently approved changes to EU asylum rules to allow member states to send asylum seekers to “safe third countries.”
The plans would further constrain and sanction nongovernmental organizations performing lifesaving search and rescue at sea. Violations of the ban would be punishable by fines up to 50,000 euros and boat seizure for repeated offenses. The Meloni government already severely limits rescue capacity in the central Mediterranean, one of the deadliest migration routes in the world, through various means including regularly fining rescue groups and detaining their ships on various grounds.
Other measures in the bill relate to the implementation of harsh new rules included in the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum due to enter into force in June, including the creation of an accelerated border procedure designed to facilitate the swift deportation of people from so-called “safe countries of origin” or whose asylum claims are considered inadmissible on other grounds.
Meloni has called on parliament to approve the bill quickly. Instead, it should debate each article carefully, strike every measure designed to undermine humanitarian efforts at sea and improperly shift responsibility to other countries, and ensure that new EU asylum rules are implemented in Italy in the least harmful way and in full compliance with international human rights and refugee law.
