Italy to close ports to NGO migrant ships ‘all summer’ – minister

Italy’s ports will be closed “all summer” to NGO ships which rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday. “The NGOs will only see Italy on a postcard,” said Salvini, who is also the deputy prime minister and head of the far-right League party. “The ports will be closed all summer,” he said on Italian radio. The ban will concern not only access to ports but also “the furnishing of fuel to the NGOs,” he added. “As the Italian military tells me as well as the Libyans, the NGOs help traffickers, consciously or not,” AFP quoted Salvini as saying. However, he stressed that Italy with other states “would continue to save all those who need to be saved.”