THE Italian government’s decision to impose fines of up to €1 million (£923,000) on any migrant rescue NGO that brings non-Europeans rescued from the Mediterranean Sea into its waters is already having a chilling effect on the civil fleet. 

A Spanish migrant rescue ship, currently in international waters between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa with 121 shipwrecked migrants on board, is stuck in limbo after it was denied permission to enter port by both nations. 

On August 1 and 2, the Open Arms charity’s ship rescued 123 migrants, 32 of whom are children, including nine-month-old twins, from two overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean.