Several groups running rescue missions in the Mediterranean are calling for a change in the EU’s policies, which they say are partly to blame for the drownings of more than 3,000 people last year.
A 2023 decree has severely reduced the response capacity of the NGO-run civil fleet’s search-and-rescue missions, routinely putting the lives of people crossing the Mediterranean at risk.
The order, implemented by the Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi, states that once a rescue has been completed, civil fleets must immediately head to an assigned port of disembarkation without delay, using the most direct route. This stops additional rescues happening, the groups said.
At the same time, Italy has begun assigning rescue boats to its ports far away from where they operate, which forces them to sail hundreds of extra miles, hindering their Mediterranean patrols. According to an SOS Humanity report, in 2023, these vessels wasted 374 days making the longer journeys.
Rescue boats covered more than 150,500km (93,500 miles) – the world’s circumference is 40,000km – in one year to take “unnecessarily long” routes, the report said, saying these demands only target humanitarian boats, and not the Italian coastguard.
In 2023, the Italian NGO Emergency rescued 1,077 people during 14 missions in the central Mediterranean. Nine times over the year, rather than heading to the closest port from the search-and-rescue zone – such as Sicily – Emergency was ordered to dock as far away as Tuscany, adding several additional days of sailing.
The Italian government said such measures help distribute arrivals, but NGOs argue it costs lives and pushes up fuel expenditure.
“Costs for such detours are exorbitant,” said Emanuele Nannini, who heads Emergency’s rescue missions. “We often have to pay an additional €50,000 (£43,000) per rescue in fuel alone.”
However, he said he was mostly concerned about the people the organisation wasn’t able to rescue. “Sailing to these faraway ports hinders us from doing rescue missions for at least eight days. In the meantime, people are drowning.”