Medecins Sans Frontieres says it will stop using rescue boat in Mediterranean Sea due to Italy law changes
An international charity which has rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea says it will stop using its rescue boat because new Italian laws “have made it impossible to continue”.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – has been using the Geo Barents vessel since June 2021 on a succession of operations.
Last year, Sky News was on board when its crew rescued more than 600 people who had been crammed together on an old fishing boat.
It was the biggest rescue the charity had carried out and our report prompted fresh debate about dangerous migration routes among politicians in the UK and across the EU.
A young injured man pictured last year being lifted onto the vessel with a sling
The lower decks of the Geo Barents packed with more than 600 people following a rescue in 2023
The Mediterranean Sea is considered the most dangerous migrant route in the world.
The charity said the Geo Barents had rescued a total of 12,675 people during 190 operations. It has also recovered 24 bodies and assisted in the delivery of a baby.
However, MSF said Italian law, updated last year, had now made it impossible to operate large rescue vessels.
The legislation restricts the rights of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in running rescue operations.
The rules include a requirement for boats to return to port as soon as a single rescue has been conducted, regardless of how many people were brought to safety.
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Charities have maintained that a vessel the size of Geo Barents, which can accommodate around 600 people, should not be mandated to return if it has only rescued a handful of people.
There has also been a long-running dispute between NGOs about which port they should use when bringing rescued migrants to Italy.
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Rather than docking at the nearest port, NGO boats are routinely told to make long journeys to distant ports.
When Sky News was filming on the Geo Barents, we saw how the boat, packed to capacity with people, was told to go past a series of ports in order to get to Bari.
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The Italian government has levied a succession of penalties on the Geo Barents for breaches of its rules, forcing the vessel to stay in port for 160 days. It has also fined MSF for ignoring the regulations.
Italian politicians have accused rescue charities of encouraging migrants to try to get to Italy, claiming that they feel emboldened to risk the journey because they expect to be rescued.
Giorgia Meloni promised a much tougher approach to irregular migration when she was elected prime minister two years ago, and has already reduced the rights of migrants arriving in the country.
She has also signed a deal that allows for migrants arriving in Italy to be transferred to Albania while their claims are being processed.
Ms Meloni said Italy was now “a model to follow” for other countries struggling with the political challenge of migration.
MSF said it would “be back as soon as possible” to carry out further search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean region, but said it was “untenable” to continue operating the Geo Barents.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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