SOS MEDITERRANEE, an international maritime and humanitarian organization, announced on Friday that its affiliated humanitarian ship Ocean Viking rescued 135 people, including a pregnant women and 8 children, from an overcrowded double-decker boat in the Maltese search and rescue region. It stated that the ship was compelled to navigate to a distant port at Ancona, Italy, with a total of 359 survivors on board. The NGO added that “such prolonged navigation [should] never be imposed on people rescued at sea.”

The rescue and subsequent diversion to a distant port come as Italy tightens its crackdown on migrants and the country’s tough migration policies focused on deterrence attract severe international condemnations.

In May 2023, the Italian government introduced an emergency law aimed at restricting the rights of people who “illegally” arrive on its shores, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized for its “devastating impact on migrants’ rights, including their ability to seek protection, access fair asylum procedures, and enjoy freedom of movement.” This law followed a January 2023 decree which instructed search and rescue vessels to go to the port allocated by Italy immediately after each rescue, prohibiting them from carrying out multiple consecutive rescue operations. HRW condemned this, stating:

The rule, which does not apply to other kinds of vessels, breaches the duty on all captains to give immediate assistance to people in distress under multiple international law provisions, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, the Palermo Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, and EU law.

Moreover, Italy reached a controversial agreement with Albania to establish migrant processing centers under Italian jurisdiction in that country, allowing Italy to send migrants rescued by Italian ships at sea to Albania. The deal was criticized by international organizations such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which warned it would “[push] people onto ever more dangerous routes in search of safety.” Amnesty International said it is “unworkable, harmful and unlawful,” urging authorities to reject the agreement.

UpRights, a foundation based in The Hague, released a report with Italian NGO StraLi in February, where it highlighted the failings of the Italian government in protecting migrants’ human rights, focusing on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Italy and Libya, which was signed in 2017 and renewed in February 2023. The report stressed that “the absence of human rights provisions in the framework of the agreement drastically impacted the basic human rights of vulnerable persons, with migrants intercepted at sea facing mistreatment, including arbitrary arrest, torture, inhuman treatment, and sexual violence.”