I noted in this morning's German news....that the Italians have started to intercept the migrant rescue vessels who failed to sign the 'code of conduct' concept that Italy proposed over the weekend.
The first vessel halted? A German NGO ship called the "Iuventa".
According to various news accounts, the ship has been directed to a local Italian port near Sicily and will have some examinations. One might take a guess that it'll be docked for several days....lawyers will be demanding the release....and will eventually have to sign the 'code of conduct' agreement.
More to follow? I would imagine another ship will be detained within the next day or two, and most will be forced within two weeks to accept the 'code of conduct'.
The 'hurt' put upon the rescue vessels? The Italians want a cop onboard and monitoring the operation....which means he'll ask how they knew such-and-such raft was at this coordinate point, and they won't be able to say they just guessed (meaning they got the smuggler phone-call or radio-chat).
It's not the end of the migrant rescue business, but I think the numbers will rapidly slow down. If you launch ten rafts and only five can be rescued in time before they sink.....it'll bring up the question of how you operated so successfully before and the connection to the smuggler crowd will make the rescue folks look like part of the smuggling operation.
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