Rights Watchdog Warns Panama's Revoking Migrant Rescue Ship Registration Can Cost Lives

Rights Watchdog Warns Panama's Revoking Migrant Rescue Ship Registration Can Cost Lives

Panama's decision to revoke registration of a migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean will cost lives, an influential rights advocacy group said Monday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2018) Panama's decision to revoke registration of a migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean will cost lives, an influential rights advocacy group said Monday.

The Aquarius ship is leased by two charities, the SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who accused Italy's right-wing government of putting pressure on Panama to stop what it sees as a people smuggling operation.

"Deliberately depleting resources for saving lives in the central Mediterranean will expose thousands of people to the risk of a watery grave," Amnesty International's Europe Researcher Elisa di Pieri said in a statement.

She slammed Italy for this "new low" in its crackdown on non-profits that save those fleeing abuses in Libya after Rome closed its ports to rescue ships and seized a boat operated by a German charity on suspicion of it giving aid to human traffickers.