ROME, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Italy's latest attempt to block arrivals from migrant rescue ships has come under attack by humanitarian groups as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which said the plan flouts the rights of both refugees and their rescuers.
The Italian government's "security decree" allows authorities to fine rescue boats up to 50,000 euros (55,500 U.S. dollars) for docking in Italian ports. It also gives new powers to interior minister Matteo Salvini to set policy on migration issues. Those powers would otherwise fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Transportation.
The measure entered into force this week after it was signed by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. But it has not yet been applied.
Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister and head of the nationalist, anti-migrant League, is the architect of Italy's strict policies aimed at curbing migrant arrivals put into place starting a year ago.
Among the policies in place so far: closing Italian ports to rescue ships, issuing fines for migrant arrivals, seizing rescue ships in Italian territorial waters, slashing spending on migrant integration programs, lobbying the European Union to tighten its migrant arrival policies, and reinforcing the coast guard in Libya to help reduce the number of would-be asylum seekers setting out to sea from that country's shores.
As a result of those measures, the number of migrants arriving in Italy has slowed to a tiny trickle.
The government has said the new "security decree" is in line with previous policies on migrant arrivals. Salvini has said that the country's rules on migration are aimed at convincing those feeling violence, poverty, and persecution in Africa or the Middle East to look for other options.
But the UNHCR issued a statement saying that "no vessel or shipmaster should be at risk of a fine for coming to the aid of boats in distress and where the loss of life may be imminent."
Fear of confiscations and fines have resulted in many rescues ships staying at home, a trend analysts said would probably result in more deaths at sea.
According to Italian government figures, 2,144 migrants arrived in Italy between the start of the year and June 10. That is 85 percent below the figures for the equivalent time period in 2018 and 96 percent below the figures for the same period in 2017.
"It's difficult to see the logic behind punishing search and rescue operations at sea, especially since arrivals by sea has shrunk so drastically over the last year," Matteo Villa, a fellow with the Italian Institute for International Policy Studies, or ISPI, a think tank, said in an interview.
Jose Maria Valenti, a migrants' rights activist, agreed.
"The government and Salvini's League are more interested in strengthening their anti-migrant credentials than they are in the welfare of migrants or in addressing the problems that drove these people to take such a risky step as trying to come to Europe," Valenti told Xinhua.
