Appeal announced

Italy detains rescue ship “Geo Barents”

The rescue ship "Geo Barents", which is active in the Mediterranean, arrived in the port of the Tuscan town of Marina di Carrara on Wednesday afternoon with 249 migrants rescued from Libya and was put on a chain. "We were detained because we did not follow the instructions of the Libyan coastguard on Saturday," explained the aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operates the ship, on Thursday.

"The Libyans tried to disrupt the rescue operation by threatening our crew and the castaways. We will appeal against the arrest," said MSF. This is the 20th detention of a rescue ship under a decree issued by the Italian government in January 2023.

Further NGO ships detained
The aid organizations Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye are taking legal action against what they consider to be the unlawful detention of their ships active in rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean in Italy. In recent days, the Italian authorities have detained three civilian sea rescue vessels flying the German flag, the "Humanity 1", the "Sea-Watch 5" and the "Sea-Eye 4". The law on the basis of which they are being detained in Italy provides for the confiscation of civilian rescue ships in the event of repeated detention.

NGO accuses Italy of preventing operations
"The ships are being prevented from carrying out their life-saving work on the basis of false accusations. With the 'Sea-Eye 4', the Italian government is blocking a rescue ship for 60 days for the first time, thereby escalating its actions against the civilian fleet," the three aid organizations complained in a press release. Italy is trying by all means to prevent the humanitarian missions of the sea rescue organizations, the NGOs criticized.