The Rage of Aquarius

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson

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The Italian government have prevailed over the NGO ship Aquarius forcing the now flag-less ship to cease its taxi service for illegal migrants in the Mediterranean:


"The Aquarius migrant rescue ship is to end its operations in the Mediterranean, the humanitarian groups that chartered the boat said on Thursday.

The vessel has been stranded in Marseille since early October after Panama revoked the right to fly its flag following a request from Italy's far-Right, anti-establishment government.

Last month Rome also ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, which had been conducting rescue operations off Libya since 2016, for allegedly dumping toxic waste.

"This is the result of a sustained campaign, spearheaded by the Italian government and backed by other European states, to delegitimise, slander and obstruct aid organisations providing assistance to vulnerable people," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement.

"Coupled with the EU's ill-conceived external policies on migration, this campaign has undermined international law and humanitarian principles. With no immediate solution to these attacks, MSF and SOS Mediterranee have no choice but to end operations by the Aquarius," it added.

Frederic Penard, SOS Mediterranee director of operations ,said "giving up the Aquarius has been an extremely difficult decision" but added that the group was "actively exploring options for a new boat".

According to Italian media, investigators suspect the vessel passed off 24 tonnes of potentially toxic waste as ordinary waste.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania are running the inquiry into migrant clothing, food leftovers and sanitary waste that was handled at Italian ports from the Aquarius and the Vos Prudence, another vessel chartered by MSF last year.

The ships have rescued thousands of migrants from the Mediterranean with immigration a hot-button issue in the European Union.

The International Organisation for Migration says that about 15,000 migrants have drowned in the central Mediterranean since 2013.

During the same period Italy has seen 600,000 migrants land on its coastline, while other European nations have closed their borders.

Italy's former centre-left government tried to stem the flow of migrants by working with the Libyan authorities and limiting the NGO effort.

Matteo Salvini, anti-immigrant deputy prime minister and interior minister, who came to power as part of a populist government in June, however, has since closed Italian ports to civilian and military boats that have rescued migrants, saying Italy bears an unfair share of the migrant burden."


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...essel-aquarius-ends-operations-mediterranean/
 
Not got a problem of they pick them up... And return them to Africa. Go build your own societies,if only they spent as much effort looking for roads paved of gold in fixing their own countries they not want to leave.
 
I wouldn't call Italy's government Far Right. They're populist, they're anti-globalist. Neither of those things define someone as Far Right no matter how much some critics like to use the term.

As to the topic at hand, it's right to rescue people in trouble at sea. It's good to assist people in desperate situations. The problem is that the rescue ships have become de facto ferries to bring people from North Africa to Italy with human traffickers liaising with NGOs to say "we will be dumping our people for you to collect at such a time and place" and the NGOs encouraging this. These NGOs have a political agenda to encourage immigration. The dividing line between rescuing people and being a ferry service isn't a clear one, but I think it's fairly obvious they crossed it.

The human traffickers are basically playing a game of chicken - willing to let people die and seeing if we will.
 
touch said:
Are you not up on current affairs?
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Somewhat, I assume he means the 'right' are changing direction and clamping down on this wave of immigrant migration. It makes sense, it's all been conducted by various groups to weaken Europe, enough is enough.
 
jsmoke said:
Somewhat, I assume he means the 'right' are changing direction and clamping down on this wave of immigrant migration. It makes sense, it's all been conducted by various groups to weaken Europe, enough is enough.
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They say they're changing direction, yet the immigration figures never change.

SHOCKER.

And the only thing weakening Europe is the xenophobes empowered by a right-wing fascist cabal.
 
RaohNS said:
There is them magic words again. Far right. In a few years parties like that will be known as Far Reich parties. In 10years they will be known as Nazi parties.
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Interesting you make that point when you have NS as your username :rolleyes:
 
jsmoke said:
What's the point to this thread. That the tide is turning?
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The point is that with the will of the government it is quite feasible for any country to make strides to stop illegal immigration, even when the EU is seemingly totally unable to even devise a cohesive plan to bring control to its member's borders. By blocking her ports to immigrant taxi ships and using the law to immobilise them Italy has managed in months what the EU generically have been unable to achieve in many years. Same with President Trump in the USA, with some patience and determination a country can retain general control of its borders despite those who would like to see them open to all and sundry. Once the populace sees what uncontrolled migration brings them, they support more Draconian measures, which helps, but is sometimes, as with Germany, too late.

Replying to your later post the Right have always favoured tighter immigration control over the Left, generally speaking, but what was just the plain Right are now called the Far Right, and those further Right are now called nazis or described in similarly ridiculous terms. If my financial prophecies were as good as those I made (and were ridiculed for in here) with regard to how Europe would turn Right I'd be a wealthy chap :(
 
Chris Wilson said:
The point is that with the will of the government it is quite feasible for any country to make strides to stop illegal immigration, even when the EU is seemingly totally unable to even devise a cohesive plan to bring control to its member's borders. By blocking her ports to immigrant taxi ships and using the law to immobilise them Italy has managed in months what the EU generically have been unable to achieve in many years. Same with President Trump in the USA, with some patience and determination a country can retain general control of its borders despite those who would like to see them open to all and sundry. Once the populace sees what uncontrolled migration brings them, they support more Draconian measures, which helps, but is sometimes, as with Germany, too late.

Replying to your later post the Right have always favoured tighter immigration control over the Left, generally speaking, but what was just the plain Right are now called the Far Right, and those further Right are now called nazis or described in similarly ridiculous terms. If my financial prophecies were as good as those I made (and were ridiculed for in here) with regard to how Europe would turn Right I'd be a wealthy chap :(
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There are people on both so called sides involved in this. It's more political hijackers or pirates that are doing this.
 
amigafan2003 said:
What's your opinion @Chris Wilson, or are we just RSS feeding again?
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I am sure my opinion is easily deduced from my post #16 above. I fully support those countries who despite pressure from the EU do not want their country infiltrated by vast numbers of young men with no proper form of ID who, who, from well publicised actions in Germany, Austria, France, the UK , the Netherlands and sundry other EU countries are likely to have an element of those opposed to western culture and values and who are willing and able to bring violence and extremism with them and use it with scant regard to the consequences. So the actions of Hungary and Italy are fully understood and applauded by me, and I see this strong opposition to illegal immigration spreading despite the pressure, financial and moral, from the EU and the UN. That is my opinion, and it seems to be being shared by more and more as the consequences of this mass migration becomes apparent.
 
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