A Sicilian court is expected to deliver a verdict in the coming days as Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is accused of “kidnapping” migrants on a boat destined for Italian shores.
The alleged incident took place when Salvini was Minister for the Interior in 2019 where he prevented the boat, which was being operated by Spanish NGO Open Arms, from bringing 147 migrants intending to claim asylum ashore.
The boat was held offshore for almost three weeks.
Salvini says he did this in efforts to curb the number of irregular arrivals into Italy and that he would “do everything as I did again”.
Entering the court he said, “I am absolutely proud of what I did. I kept the promises I made, I fought mass immigration and, whatever the sentence, for me today is a good day because I am proud to have defended my country,”
“I enter this room PROUD of my work, for Italy and for Italians.” he wrote on X.
Although Salvini has the support of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, if convicted he could face six years in jail.
His lawyer Giulia Bongiorno argues that migrant boats had had no automatic right to dock in Italy and that the NGO could have ferried them somewhere else if concern for their welfare was an issue.
After being requested to bring the migrants, most of whom were Africans picked up on the coast of Libya, to Spain Open Arms refused saying that those on board were too exhausted to make the journey.
Expressing support for Salvini, X CEO Elon Musk said, “Crazy that Salvini is being tried for defending Italy!”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came under pressure in recent months after court rulings blocked the transfer of migrants seeking asylum in Italy from being transferred to Albania for processing.
Meloni vowed to fight back against the courts with her government subsequently amending previous legislation about who can designate migrants’ countries of origin as ‘safe.’
As Gript previously reported, this action was taken with the aim of significantly limiting the power of the judiciary to hinder the implementation of the use of offshore reception centers for male migrants set up in a Balkan country (the ‘Albania protocol.’)The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday, October 21st, a few days after a civil court in Rome refused to validate the detention of the first dozen migrants bound for Albania.
Instead, it ordered the Coast Guard to bring the migrants to Italy because their home countries, Egypt and Bangladesh, could not be considered safe.
Read the full piece on the change in legislation here.