• In Catania, Sicily, only children and sick patients may exit the ships.
• Two more rescue boats are at sea to help the hundreds of people stuck at sea.
• The new Italian PM vows to stop Mediterranean migrants.

After the Italian authorities blocked 250 people from disembarking two migrant rescue ships, charities called it “illegal.”

Geo Barents has 215 blocked and Humanity 1 35.

In Catania, Sicily, only children and sick patients may exit the ships. Two more rescue boats are at sea.

The new Italian PM vows to stop Mediterranean migrants.

The UN reports 85,000 boat migrants arriving in Italy since the start of the year.

North African migrants board overcrowded boats and are rescued by charity ships.

Sunday morning saw 144 German-flagged Humanity 1 passengers disembark. 357 individuals were allowed off the Norwegian-flagged MSF-run Geo Barents in the afternoon.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said non-vulnerable people should leave Italian seas and be cared for by the “flag state.”

Humanity 1’s captain won’t leave Catania “until all persons rescued from distress at sea have been disembarked,” according to SOS Humanity, the German charity that runs it.

SOS Humanity tweeted, “The captain must take all rescued people to safety by marine law.

“Only on land can survivors receive an individual protection check. Collectively rejecting Humanity 1’s 35 asylum seekers from territorial seas is illegal.”

SOS Humanity tweeted late Sunday that it would sue Italy on Monday for violating European law and the Geneva Refugee Convention.

It said it would sue in Catania to force the ship’s remaining migrants to disembark and apply for asylum.

The Geo Barents’ operator, MSF, called the Italian government’s decision “illegal under marine law conventions”.

“A rescue operation is regarded successful only when all of the survivors have been disembarked in a safe place,” said Doctors Without Borders.

Since they were rescued, both charity warned their shipmates were vulnerable.

No ports will allow two other non-governmental organization boats.

The SOS Mediterranee-operated Ocean Viking has 234 persons while the German-run Rise Above has 93.

All four boats reported sleeping on floors and decks, fever-inducing diseases and scabies, and inadequate food and medical supplies. Some migrants have spent over two weeks on ships.

Humanitarian groups and two Italian politicians protested the process in Sicily.

Aboubakar Soumahoro, an Italian legislator, called the government’s new policy “inhuman.”

In her first speech to MPs, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni prioritized migration.

“We must prohibit unlawful departures and people trafficking,” she added, adding that she will not “challenge the right to asylum for individuals escaping conflicts and persecutions”.

She also claimed in a recent interview that the country where the ship is registered is responsible for the migrants on board, else it becomes a “pirate ship”.

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