An Italian court has declared unlawful a decree imposed by Rome's right-wing government last year allowing only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from a rescue ship, a charity said Monday. The verdict relates to restrictions imposed in November on the German-flagged Humanity 1, which had picked up 179 people in distress in the Central Mediterranean, the world's deadliest crossing. It was given permission to dock in the Sicilian port of Catania, but only for enough time to disembark its most vulnerable passengers. While 144 people were allowed off, another 35 adult male migrants were refused, leaving them stranded. Similar restrictions were imposed at the time on the Geo Barents, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders, while a third vessel, the Ocean Viking, decided to head to France rather than face the same situation. Eventually the 250 remaining migrants from both Humanity 1 and Geo Barents were allowed to disembark, following sharp criticism from the NGOs and the UN. Following a legal challenge, a Catania court has now declared the Humanity 1 decree "unlawful", according to a February 6 judgement published by SOS Humanity on Monday. "It is clear that among the...
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