Just Two of Seventeen Migrant ‘Taxi’ Ships Are Registered as Search and Rescue Vessels

Just two of the 17 NGO migrant “taxis” operating in the Mediterranean Sea are certified as search and rescue vessels, despite all claiming they engage in “rescue” operations.

Of the 17 NGO ships, only the Geo Barents, operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Open Arms, operated by the Spanish NGO of the same name, are registered to act as search and rescue ships at sea.

Many of the remaining ships operating in the Mediterranean are either registered for other purposes or are not registered for any particular purpose, such as the Lois Michel, a ship financed by the reclusive artist Banksy, the newspaper Il Giornale reports.

SOS Humanity, a German NGO, has its vessel Humanity 1 — one of those recently denied port access by the Italian government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — registered not as a search and rescue ship but as a general cargo ship.

Several other vessels are registered as fishing ships, while the Sea Eye 4, belonging to the German NGO Sea-Eye, is listed as an offshore support vessel.

Earlier this month, another German NGO, SeaWatch, announced it would be deploying a new vessel to the Mediterranean with room to transport as many as 500 or more migrants at a time.  As with many other NGO vessels, the ship, the SeaWatch 5, is not registered as a search and rescue ship but as an offshore tug/supply ship.

According to Il Giornale, migrant “taxi” NGOs note that all ships, regardless of purpose, have a duty to aid those in difficulty or distress at sea — but that they use the fact they are not registered as search and rescue vessels to gain leverage to drop off migrants at Italian ports, claiming they do not have the facilities to take care of them.

Since coming to power, Prime Minister Meloni has vowed to take on illegal immigration, and her interior minister, Matteo Piantsedosi, has singled out the activities of NGOs, who have dropped off at least 10,000 migrants in Italy this year alone.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.