Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 21 november 2018

Italian officials: Migrant rescuers mishandled medical waste

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Italian prosecutors have ordered the sei-
zure of a migrant rescue ship and accused the aid group
Doctors Without Borders of illegally disposing of 24 metric
tons (26.5 tons) of medical and contaminated waste ac-
cumulated during nearly 50 rescues.
Prosecutors in Catania, Sicily said Tuesday that 24 people
were under investigation, including the aid group's Italy
personnel and the crew of the Aquarius. Prosecutors ac-
cused them of working with a Sicily-based shipping com-
pany to mix medical and "contaminated" waste, like mi-
grants' clothing, with other garbage to save money.
Prosecutors ordered the sequester of the Aquarius, which
is currently moored in Marseille, France, as well as the sei-
zure of 460,000 euros ($526,000), which prosecutors said
was the amount saved by the group by not properly dis-
In this file photo taken on Aug. 1, 2018, French NGO "SOS Mediterranee" Aquarius ship leaves
the Marseille harbour, southern France. posing of the material.
Associated Press Doctors Without Borders called the accusation "dispro-
portionate" and another attempt to criminalize migrant
rescues. The group, known by its French acronym MSF,
said its waste disposal followed all approved "standard
procedures."
At the same time, however, MSF allowed that there may
have been lapses, especially among port authorities with
whom MSF worked, acknowledging prosecutor video
showing latex gloves and what appeared to be a syringe
mixed in with regular garbage.
"We are ready to clarify the facts and respond about the
procedures we followed, but we strongly reaffirm the le-
gitimacy and the legality of our humanitarian activities,"
said MSF Italia's director general, Gabriele Eminente.
At a news conference, MSF officials expressed shock at
the prosecutors' claim that migrants' clothing alone could
spread infectious disease, saying it showed ignorance
about public health and was more an attempt to tarnish
MSF's reputation.
The Aquarius, a 77-meter (252.62-foot) -long former fish-
ery protection vessel, is perhaps best known for having
become a pawn in the European battle over migration in
June after Italy's new populist government refused to let it
dock in an Italian port.
After a weeklong standoff at sea that returned the migra-
tion debate to the world stage, Spain agreed to let the
Aquarius dock with its 630 migrants who, along with tens
of thousands of other migrants before them, had set off
from Libya aboard smugglers boats.
The same Sicily prosecutors' office behind the new investi-
gation made headlines in 2017 when it publicly accused
rescue groups of aiding illegal migration by being in con-
tact with Libyan-based human traffickers as they plucked
migrants from the sea off Libya's coast. To date, the inves-
tigation hasn't produced any indictments.q