According to the authorities, the crews violated a law of the right-wing government in Rome. What exactly happened?
The Italian authorities have temporarily detained the two German sea rescue ships “Mare*Go” and “Sea-Eye 4”. The crews of the two aid organizations brought several boat migrants to Italy today.
With their rescue missions, however, they violated a law of the right-wing government in Rome, the Italian coast guard announced today. It says to go to port immediately after a rescue operation instead of performing multiple rescues. You also have to comply with the port assignment of the authorities.
The Incidents
According to its own statements, “Mare*Go” had rescued 37 Mediterranean migrants from distress at sea. They landed on Lampedusa, although the authorities had assigned her the Sicilian port of Trapani. Because of the long journey to Trapani, your ship was not able to take care of the rescued. “That’s why we decided to go to Lampedusa,” the organization wrote on Twitter.
The ship “Sea-Eye 4” of the aid organization of the same name, on the other hand, brought 49 people to Ortona in Abruzzo this morning. According to their own statements, the crew had rescued 17 people last Sunday and 32 people on Wednesday from unseaworthy wooden boats – and thus undertook more than one mission. After the first rescue, the “Sea-Eye 4” should have headed for Ortona immediately, the coast guard said.
According to the coast guard, both aid organizations thus violated the law that stipulates the arrest of a ship and heavy fines. With this law, Rome had tightened the procedure against private sea rescuers.
They repeatedly criticize that they are prevented from rescuing people in distress at sea. “Sea rescuers must not always be at risk of being criminalized and punished,” Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye, said today.
In Italy, the arrival of thousands of migrants is being discussed because of the recent high number of migration via the Mediterranean route. According to official figures from the Ministry of the Interior in Rome, more than 50,000 migrants have reached Italy on boats since the beginning of the year – in the same period last year there were around 19,600.
Source: Stern
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