![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/italy-blocks-35-men-from-disembarking-from-migrant-ship-under-controversial-new-laws/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TELEMMGLPICT000315311308_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq5WMHsXvSh4VEQmShTmvO-72jEHLAQ0wcLH2IjzB4pGw.jpeg&description=Humanity1 is just one of four ships with over 1,000 migrants, which are all at sea just outside Catania, hoping to dock to disembark. Its captain last night refused an order to leave the port. Petra Krischok, spokesperson for SOS Humanity, told reporters in Catania that it was illegal not to accept all the migrants, saying that the 179 people on Humanity1 are 'refugees, in a very vulnerable state, some of them clearly heavily traumatised and in need of both medical and psychological help'. Aboubakar Soumahoro, an Italian trade unionist of Ivorian origin and MP of the Federation of Greens, told reporters in Catania that the new policy was "inhumane". "Free all the people, free them," he demanded. The passengers have faced "trauma, they have faced everything that we can define as prolonged suffering, a hell," Soumahoro said. This is not the first time that a League Interior Minister has attempted to block, or partially block, the arrival of migrants. Controversial case In 2019, Mr Salvini, in his then role of interior minister, refused to allow the Open Arms, a Spanish NGO rescue ship, to dock in Palermo, with 147 migrants on board. Even though the then prime minister Guiseppe Conte had agreed to allow the Spanish ship to dock, Mr Salvini demanded this order be overruled by the Palermo state attorney's office. Eventually, after days of legal and political battling, the ship docked. That incident gave rise to an ongoing court case in which Mr Salvini stands accused of dereliction of duty. The case was due to come to court just before the recent general election, but it was postponed due to the ill-health of Mr Salvini's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, herself a League senator.){kind=link}
Sources close to firebrand minister Matteo Salvini warned those not eligible to remain would be forced back into international waters
Some 35 men were blocked from disembarking from a migrant rescue ship in an Italian port on Saturday, while children and the infirm were taken ashore in a controversial new screening process.
The new hard-Right Italian government was facing criticism after signing a decree that effectively abandons asylum seekers they do not deem vulnerable when they arrive by boat.
Sources close to firebrand minister Matteo Salvini warned those not eligible to remain would be forced back into international waters.
Over 87,000 people have landed in Italy so far this year, according to the interior ministry – though only 14 per cent of those were rescued at sea and brought to safety by charity rescue vessels. About 28,000 arrived to the UK last year, with this year expected to outsrip that record.