Italy has allocated a port for two humanitarian aid ships that have been navigating the central Mediterranean in recent days. The vessels face hours of waiting and rough seas before any landing can take place, with port calls planned for this Saturday.
The two ships are Doctors Without Borders’ Geo Barents and Humanity 1, a German NGO vessel operated by SOS Humanity. Geo Barents carries a number of migrants, and Humanity 1 is estimated to be able to bring ashore hundreds more, with the Salerno port near Naples receiving one group and Bari in the south preparing to welcome the rest.
Both rescue ships had been located off the coast of Sicily on Friday, but Italian authorities arranged landings at two Italian ports on the mainland, requiring the ships to travel hundreds of miles and endure lengthy journeys in challenging weather.
Geo Barents had already faced a difficult situation as a woman aboard gave birth in recent days and had to be evacuated. The ship is proceeding toward the Salerno port amid stormy sea conditions, according to statements from the organization, with plans to reach the harbor early on Sunday.
Humanity 1 altered its course toward Bari after traversing roughly 300 nautical miles along the southern Italian coastline, which is about 555 kilometers in distance.
The captain requested a closer port assignment from authorities, but this request could not be accommodated due to an expected storm on the route. Current information from the ship’s crew reported to EFE indicates the vessel is now headed toward the Apulian city of Bari.
Public television RAI reported that the decision to avoid landings in Sicily was tied to a government aim to reduce the island’s network of reception centers.
Once again, the two humanitarian ships quickly secured permissions to dock and land the survivors. This comes about a month after the southern port of Catania was blocked by Italy’s far-right government under Giorgia Meloni.
The government has accused these organizations of encouraging irregular migration flows from North Africa and has criticized their European Union partners for not coordinating a shared approach to dispersing asylum seekers across member states.
Solidarity mechanism
In early November, Matteo Salvini, a leading figure in Meloni’s administration, initially blocked the docking of Geo Barents and Humanity 1 before imposing selective landings, allowing only those deemed most vulnerable to disembark.
Eventually Italy agreed to disembark evacuees at Catania, triggering a diplomatic row with Paris when a Norwegian-flagged ship chartered by SOS Méditerranée had to sail to the French port of Toulon with 230 migrants aboard.
A couple of weeks later, the European Commission unveiled an action plan aimed at strengthening the solidarity mechanism to help EU countries that bear the brunt of irregular arrivals.
The recent rapid port allocation for Geo Barents and Humanity 1 marks a notable shift in the Meloni government’s approach toward these humanitarian operations.
Earlier this week, Germany’s ambassador to Rome confirmed that his country had agreed to host the first group of 164 asylum seekers arriving in Italy under the solidarity framework.
“Solidarity works. Germany welcomed the largest number of asylum seekers under the agreed mechanism. It’s not about numbers, it’s about lives. We are collaborating closely with Italy on this,” the ambassador stated.
In Tirana, during a summit between the European Union and the Western Balkans, Meloni underscored migration as a priority issue for Brussels, highlighting the ongoing effort to coordinate responses and support member states facing immigration pressures.