Danilo Toninelli

The Ministry of Transports and Infrastructure is implicated by overseeing the work of Italian Coast Guard, which has supported the establishment of the Libyan Coast Guard and delegitimated search and rescue operations conducted outside Italian waters (See Italy, “Ministry of Transports and Infrastructures”).When in June 2018, Salvini ordered Italian ports to prevent the disembarkation of the Aquarius, an NGO ship carrying 629 rescued refugees, his order got the backing of Danilo Toninelli, who co-signed a note with Salvini asking the Maltese government to allow the Aquarius to dock at one of its ports instead (See Italy, "Closed Ports Policy")

Under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Italian Coast Guard cooperated with Operation Sophia in planning and conducting a successful training on Coast Guard Functions for the benefit of the Libyan Coast Guard and Port Security (LCGPS) and committed to support the EU Project Seahorse in training the Libyan General Administration for Coastal Security (GACS) personnel. (See Italy, “Training of the Libyan Coastguard through Operation Sophia”)

According to the program’s Action Fiche of the “Support to the Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya First Phase”, the Italian Coast Guard, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, would support the Central Directorate for Immigration Border Police with the training of the GACS and the functional restoring of Libyan national operation rooms. (See Italy, “The financial support: the Fondo Africa, the EUTF and the Missioni Internazionali”).