As of the weekend, several boats, with a total of around 250 people on Board to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa landed, had a reaction of Matteo Salvini not have to wait long. The former interior Minister commented on only from the side line, because after a severe fault in the power poker he sits in September 2019 in the Opposition. Therefore, the party chief of the extreme-right Lega responded on Twitter.

In a Video of the arrival of a boat on Lampedusa with a cheerful steel drum holiday music. At the top left in the picture made a mockery of the word “tourists always speaks to” the protection seekers Crossing to the risk. In the Tweet including Salvini accuses the government of “importing the wrong refugees and COVID-Positive” “” and to ruin Italy. “The Italians are making a judgment without appeal.”

but in this case threatens to further process

the next elections are Meant, for example, at the regional level in the autumn, in which Salvini’s Lega hopes for gains. Salvini brings already in position, “next year, as Prime Minister to return,” he said on Saturday. Safer currently, however, that he must appear before the court. Legally, two decisions from his time as Minister of the interior, in which he refused to boats in distress at sea rescued refugees, the entrance will be refurbished.

On Thursday voted by a narrow majority of Italian senators, after a long debate in favour of Salvini’s immunity. It is the allegation of the deprivation of liberty – Salvini had allowed the Spanish rescue ship “Open Arms” with more than 100 men, women and children on Board in August 2019 for almost three weeks, no entrance in Italian waters. Already in February, the Senate had repealed in the first case, the immunity of the Ex-Minister and Senator, probably on 3. October begins in the Sicilian Catania in the process, to the Blockade of the “Gregoretti”, a boat of the Italian coast guard, the 131 migrants.

It’s more than a politician, and two ships,

For Salvini, the two court could have consequences methods, estimates Christopher Hein, a political scientist with a focus on migration policy and asylum law at the LUISS University in Rome: “The criminal code provides for a stricter punishment if the deprivation of liberty has taken place as an act of state,” said the Professor to the DW. Even harder to cradle, “when she referred to minors, which is, at least in the case of the ‘Open Arms’ of the case, less clear in the case of the ‘Gregoretti’.” The Ex-Minister had to be proved from a legal point of view, also a personal act.

Should be condemned Salvini in one of the two processes, in fact, would be his political career, but not immediately the end. Before a final judgment should, expects Hein with a lengthy tour through the instances.

On the political level could be strengthened, according to Hein at the end of “the Belief that the search and rescue takes precedence over all other considerations”.

“This process is not important for us, primarily, because Salvini is accused of, but because a Vision of the world and the policy will be judged,” says Veronica Alfonsi of the organization’s Sea Watch, their ship is in the most recent case. “Since 2015, Europe is drifting dangerous. This process offers a possibility of a painful truth clear, namely, how our ships to be stopped and everything in the Mediterranean is happening,” says Alfonsi to the DW. The process paves the way to make the respect of human rights in the center.

Italy takes back Salvini’s decrees,

I m January, the Italian Supreme court had already confirmed a acquittal of the German captain Carola Missiles, which was the rescue ship “Sea-Watch 3” despite the explicit prohibition in Italian territorial waters hazards. “The court of cassation has made it clear that the peoples dominated legal obligation to rescue any national standard,” stresses Hein, who was for long years Chairman of the of he founded the Italian refugee Council. The court therefore had “undermined the second Salvini-decree”. The Italian government had put on Salvini’s the unauthorized entry private rescue vessels to be Operated under penalty.

at the Time, the Director had supported the ruling populist Five-star movement, the coalition partner Lega initiated tightening. In the meantime, she ruled with the left-liberal Partito Democratico (PD) – both partners have agreed recently that Salvini-decrees, in Essence to take back.

this policy decision is not also shaken, the number of Refugees and recent rise in are, estimates Christopher Hein. Facilities on Lampedusa are already overcrowded ten-fold, outbreaks of narrow accommodation have made headlines. “You can’t talk about abstract Numbers, but must have a look at who the people are who come across the sea. You have to understand the context.” Currently, Tunisians were especially on the life-threatening journey – what is the Tunisian tourism by Corona was collapsing, both with the desolate Situation for migrant workers in the neighboring country of Libya links, as well as that completely. The chances of Tunisian citizens on an asylum decision, however, be low.

That so many Refugee shelters are overcrowded, is the fact that you are not always distributed on a permanent basis across the EU, what would be the relieve of boat migration particularly affected Mediterranean countries such as Italy. This is also Christopher Hein points out: “there is a responsibility of the other EU States and the EU, as such, have not managed until today, such a redistribution of the key to formulate really. One can only hope that the German EU presidency will change something.”

author: David Ehl,

*The contribution of “search and rescue: international court of justice for Salvini” will be released by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.

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