There has not been a political decision to send humanitarian ships to cities under the center-left, Italy's interior minister has said.

Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that it is simply a matter of "fair distribution" of migrant arrivals, with the aim of "lightening the burden as much as possible on Sicily and Calabria, which should not be condemned to act as refugee camps for all of Europe".

While the Ocean Viking and Geo Barents ships were sailing towards Ancona, Piantedosi has defended the government's new line as concerns migrant rescue ship disembarkation.

Concerns about ships amid rough seas

He also downplayed concerns voiced by NGOs about the journey of 1,500 kilometer imposed amid rough seas due to the port assigned.

"These are ships," he said, "of a large size, which in the past stayed for 2-3 weeks in similar weather conditions at sea. The conditions are not adverse, nothing exceptional."

The Ocean Viking arrived in the Marches regional capital at around 7 pm on Tuesday night (January 10), with 37 migrants that were rescued off Libya.

The Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is expected to arrive today with 73 rescued migrants on board. MSF continues to protest the decision of the port assigned and has posted a video showing the conditions at sea.

The head of sea rescues for the NGO, Fulvia Conte, noted that MSF was dealing with high waves measuring at least two and a half meters high.

Interior minister denies port choice is 'political'

The choice of Ancona, Piantedosi said in responding to criticism voiced by opposition factions, "is that of a city that is in a region that is not governed by the left. And this should lead to different reasonings. I'd like to note that, when disembarking occurs, a measure is implemented for the distribution of migrants outside the place where they were disembarked and even outside of the region. If it were not like this, Lampedusa would by now have been invaded by hundreds of thousands of people."

Thus ports of different regions will be assigned in a fair manner, the minister said, and "those that have not been assigned will soon be so."

On the same line is the undersecretary for the interior ministry, Wanda Ferro. "Perhaps," she said, "the left is suffering from a sort of NIMBY syndrome: it preaches welcoming migrants so long as it is far from its own yard. Fratoianni and friends should resign themselves to the policy of countering irregular immigration that has been undertaken by the Meloni government."

Sicily and Calabria have not been spared from migrant landings, as these occur even without the assistance of humanitarian ships.

On Tuesday, 36 were found on Lampedusa's Conigli Island and the Imbriacola hotspot has about 900 hosted in facilities created for a maximum of 398 people.

In Crotone, some 62 arrived on a sailboat intercepted by a motorized patrol boat of the Financial Police.

And the number of arrivals in the first nine days of the year are substantial: some 3,673, ten times more than the number seen in the same period of 2022, when arrivals had totalled 378.

Pakistanis (345), Egyptians (201), and Syrians (201) are the nationalities with the largest number among the migrant arrivals.

Unaccompanied minors that have been disembarked thus far total 146.

Italy seeking collaboration with countries of origin and transit

The government, in addition to managing the arrivals, is also working with the countries of origin and transit to stop migrants from departing in the first place.

"On January 16," Piantedosi said, "I will go to Turkey and I will initiate collaboration and discussion. Most likely after that it will be Tunisia's turn. I have had multiple phone calls with my Tunisian counterpart and we will see each other soon."

He added that, after that, there is "the issue of Libya to be taken up again, and this goes beyond the migration issue." He added that, with Libya, "at the technical and operating level we have already resumed operative cooperation dialogue."