Italy said that planes used by charities to track migrant boats in difficulty would no longer be able to fly from airports on the islands of Sicily, Pantelleria and Lampedusa that are close to the shipping routes.
The decision, announced by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), will make it much harder for non-governmental groups like Sea Watch to use its small planes to scour the central Mediterranean for boats in need of rescue.
In a written ordinance, ENAC said the planes were “unwarranted,” represented a burden for the official rescue teams and risked compromising the safety of undocumented migrants.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the Italian decision “may hinder life-saving efforts”, and added that his agency was “waiting to understand its actual implementation.”
Since then, her government has made it increasingly difficult for charity ships to operate in the Mediterranean, limiting the number of rescues they can carry out and often forcing them to make huge detours to bring migrants ashore.
She has also worked with the European Union to persuade both Libya and Tunisia to slow the flows, and has signed an unprecedented deal with Albania to build migrant holding centres there.
The original article contains 380 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Italy said that planes used by charities to track migrant boats in difficulty would no longer be able to fly from airports on the islands of Sicily, Pantelleria and Lampedusa that are close to the shipping routes.
The decision, announced by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), will make it much harder for non-governmental groups like Sea Watch to use its small planes to scour the central Mediterranean for boats in need of rescue.
In a written ordinance, ENAC said the planes were “unwarranted,” represented a burden for the official rescue teams and risked compromising the safety of undocumented migrants.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the Italian decision “may hinder life-saving efforts”, and added that his agency was “waiting to understand its actual implementation.”
Since then, her government has made it increasingly difficult for charity ships to operate in the Mediterranean, limiting the number of rescues they can carry out and often forcing them to make huge detours to bring migrants ashore.
She has also worked with the European Union to persuade both Libya and Tunisia to slow the flows, and has signed an unprecedented deal with Albania to build migrant holding centres there.
The original article contains 380 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!