Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini, has accused the crew of Sea-Watch 3, a migrant rescue vessel, of ‘criminality’ for rescuing 47 maritime migrants in the central Mediterranean. For the time being, the Minister considers charges for the crew for ‘favouring illegal immigration’. Also, the crew has been prevented from leaving the boat, or local waters, by Italian minister.
In addition, Italian authorities permitted the Sea-Watch 3 to shelter off Sicily during a storm, but they have forbidden the vessel to depart until after the inquiry is complete.
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Mainly, a volunteer crewmember, Brendan Woodhouse, reported that all volunteers in the crew feel threatened with a criminal investigation for saving people’s lives at sea.
The four volunteers, Woodhouse, Jon Stone, the vessel’s chief engineer and a veteran of the Royal Navy, appealed to the UK Foreign Office to intervene on their support.
Moreover, Italy refuses immigrants to enter the country and also encourages other European nations to accept arrivals instead.
Concerning Sea-Watch 3, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio suggested that the rescuees should disembark in either France or the Netherlands; the latter is the vessel’s flag state.
Furthermore, The Sea-Watch’s operator has filed a suit with the European Court of Human Rights to require Italian authorities to allow the vessel to offload rescuees in Sicily.
Yet, the court declined, on January 29, but ordered Italy to provide the vessel and her passengers with aid:
… take all necessary measures, as soon as possible, to provide all the applicants with adequate medical care, food, water and basic supplies as necessary.
Concluding, firstly Italy awaits for the Netherlands to respond to Sea-Watch’s charges, as it is the vessel’s flag state and secondly, the Sea-Watch 3 should have delivered the rescuees to a port in Tunisia, which would have been closer to the site of the rescue.
