Salvini tells Richard Gere to fly the 160 stranded migrants to Hollywood & house them in his villas

Posted by DanielS on Monday, 12 August 2019 20:05.

Salvini tells Richard Gere to fly the 160 stranded migrants to Hollywood and house them in his villas

Voice of Europe, 12 August 2019:

Hollywood millionaire Richard Gere has called upon the Italian government to assist migrants who have been stranded on a Spanish charity boat in the Mediterranean for more than a week.

The Italian government needed to stop “demonizing people”, the actor said.

Gere boarded the vessel, which has been blocked from entering Italian waters, on Friday.

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini hit back, saying Gere should take the 160 migrants to Hollywood.

Gere, who visited the Open Arms ship in a show of support, also joined a news conference on the Italian island of Lampedusa calling for the migrants to be allowed to dock.

He made comparisons between Salvini, who has made repeated efforts to block migrant ships from docking in Italy, and US President Donald Trump, who has faced widespread criticism for his immigration policies.

“We have our problems with refugees coming from Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico… It’s very similar to what you are going through here”, he said, accusing both politicians of demonizing migrants.

“This has to stop everywhere on this planet now. And it will stop if we say stop”, he added.

It didn’t take Salvini long to respond.

“Given this generous millionaire is voicing concern for the fate of the Open Arms migrants, we thank him: he can take back to Hollywood, on his private plane, all the people aboard and support them in his villas. Thank you Richard!”, he said in a statement. Over the course of a career spanning more than 40 years, Gere, 69, has starred in films including Pretty Woman, American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman.

A campaigner for environmental causes and AIDS awareness, he is also a Buddhist who pays regular visits to Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Richard Gere is worth an estimated £100million according to the website celebritynetworth.com.

Salvini, whose party made sweeping gains in last year’s Italian general election, has pledged to deport 500,000 migrants by 2023. Earlier this week he tabled a motion of no confidence in his own government, in a bid to force through a snap election and take control from his coalition partners Five Star Movement.

Comments:

Posted by mancinblack on Fri, 16 Aug 2019 17:31 | #

Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Romania and Luxembourg are willing to welcome some of the 138 people who have been on board a rescue ship for two weeks….
[Spanish] Government sources said that EU officials are in talks with more member states to see whether they are willing to take in some of the migrants.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/08/15/inenglish/1565852352_828366.html

Posted by Matteo Salvini on Wed, 21 Aug 2019 08:17 | #

BREAKING: Italy seizes NGO migrant ferry Open Arms

Voice of Europe, 20 Aug 2019:

Earlier today, Spanish authorities sent a navy vessel to pick up migrants aboard the migrant ferry Open Arms which has been sitting off the coast of Italy’s Lampedusa island for a few days now.

According to ANSA news agency, which cited sources, Italy’s prosecutor’s office has seized Proactiva’s Open Arms migrant transport ship and has ordered the evacuation of the migrants.

The naval vessel sent by the Spanish government to assist the migrants aboard Open Arms is expected to reach Lampedusa in three days.

Although Open Arms is about a few hundred feet away from the Island, Italy’s National Populist government refuses to let it dock.

It has been reported while anchored off Italy’s coast, nine migrants tried to jump off the ship to make a mad dash for the Italian coast.

NGO workers meanwhile have claimed that the hundred or so African migrants aboard the ship are in critical psychological conditions as tensions run high.

Yesterday, the Spanish government offered to let the ship dock at its port in Mallorca, but the NGO refused on the account that the situation on board the vessel was too dire, and the those on board wouldn’t be able to withstand the five-day journey to reach the port.

The story is currently unfolding

The Open Arms rescue boat with 107 migrants, stuck in limbo, denied safe harbour by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane http://en.rfi.fr/europe/20190818-france-spain-ready-take-open-arms-migrants-while-desperate-try-swim-italy

France ready to take some Open Arms migrants, Spanish offer rejected…

Posted by Salvini on Wed, 28 Aug 2019 10:24 | #

Salvini bans German-flagged migrant ferry from entering Italian waters

Voice of Europe, 28 Aug 2019:

Three Italian ministries have banned a migrant transport vessel operated by the German NGO Mission Lifeline from entering Italian waters.

The decree to ban the migrant ferry ‘Eleonore’ from approaching Italy’s coast was signed by the country’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta, and Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli.

Axel Steier, the head of the Mission Lifeline, said that the ship dubbed Eleonore is currently carrying 101 migrants which it picked up off the coast of Libya. He also said that both Italian and Maltese authorities had refused to let the ship dock at their ports in order to offload the migrants.

Steier also mentioned that passengers weren’t in any danger at the present moment, but added that the captain of the ship would go to one of the two countries in the event of an emergency.

“If the ship gets into distress at sea, it will travel to a port”, Steier said. Why Italian and Maltese ports are the only options, Steier didn’t say.

“It is not up to Mr. Salvini to decide, but to the captain,” Steier added.

Sources inside Italy’s Ministry of Internal Affairs contend that the unanimous decision made by the three ministers proves “the newly achieved compactness of the government in the face of another attempt by a German NGO to approach Italian territorial waters”.

Although migrant transport ships operated by NGOs are technically banned from Italian waters, many have previously managed to dock at Italian ports after the situation onboard the vessel becomes more dire, so long as other European countries say they’re willing to take the migrants in.

Just last week, Malta allowed 356 migrants carried by the Ocean Viking to be offloaded at one of its ports after six EU member states agreed to distribute the migrants among themselves.