THE AQUARIUS AND LIFELINE CRUISES MEET THE ITALIAN POPULIST WAVE
The old usual route of the NGO-ship Aquarius , having packed its hold full of African migrants nearby the Libyan coast, went from there to one of the many harbours of Southern Italy. During the past two years this former German coast guard vessel provided travel facility to over 10.000 illegal immigrants. A similar "humanitarian" task performed the Lifeline , belonging to a German NGO and operating under the Dutch flag. NGO-vessels are part of a manifold fleet involved in the so called "rescue operations" in the central part of the Mediterranean sea. Other ships belong to the Italian coast guard, the Italian Navy, the Libyan coast guard. There are too cargo-ships involved, military vessels of other European countries, US Navy ships, private sailboats, yachts, fishing vessels... On the boundaries of Libyan territorial waters the maritime traffick has never been as high as during the past 5 years. If you want to know the underlaying reason of this phenomenon,