The Italian government plans to impose fines of up to 10,000 euros on aircraft pilots who search for migrant boats in distress at sea, according to a draft government decree.

The far-right government of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has vowed to block the arrival of irregular migrants. In this context, he is working with the governments of African countries to put an obstacle in the departures of migrant boats bound for Italy. Migrant detention centers will also be established in Albania, which will soon be operational.

This anti-immigrant policy has made it increasingly difficult for charities that operate ships to rescue migrants in maritime accidents to carry out rescue operations. Rome has limited the number of such rescues they can make, grounding these ships in ports and often forcing them to make huge detours to bring migrants ashore.

According to the decree, aircraft “departing or landing in Italy and carrying out an activity… for the purpose of search and rescue” must immediately inform the authorities of any emergency and comply with their orders.

Violation of these orders may result in the grounding of the aircraft for 20 days and, in case of repeated violations, confiscation.

The order follows a new immigration crackdown in May, when the Meloni government banned planes used by charities to spot migrant boats from using airports near shipping lanes. Charities reacted with outrage and some ignored the measure.

The new decree also provides for tougher measures against fraud in the immigrant visa system. Meloni denounces the fraud as evidence that criminal organizations have infiltrated the system to grant visas to those who have no right to receive them.

The decree emphasizes that employers who in the past three years submitted a request to hire a foreign worker, but were not approved, will not be allowed to apply again.

Italy last year increased work visa quotas for non-EU citizens to a total of 452,000 for the period 2023-2025, an increase of almost 150% over the previous three years.

In 2019, before the Covid pandemic, Italy issued just 30,850 visas.