The Sea-Watch 3 charity ship carrying dozens of migrants rescued off Libya on Friday night forced its way into the Italian port of Lampedusa after a lengthy standoff, the charity said.
Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said that the boat’s German captain Carola Rackete, 31, was arrested and the 40 migrants were still on board after the vessel docked.
After maneuvering the ship into port without permission, Rackete was arrested for refusing to obey a military vessel, a crime punishable by three to 10 years in jail.
Photo: Reuters
She offered no resistance and was escorted off the vessel without handcuffs.
The 40 migrants still on board were eventually allowed to disembark early yesterday and were taken to the island’s reception center.
The Italian coast guard then took control of the boat, moved it out of the port and anchored it just off the coast.
The ship docked despite the best efforts of a coast guard boat to prevent her from doing so by sailing back and forth between the vessel and the pier, the Repubblica reported.
While five European nations on Friday agreed to take in the migrants, permission for the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3 to enter port and disembark the migrants did not come.
Sources at the Italian Ministry of the Interior, headed by far-right Matteo Salvini, had said that he was waiting for precise guarantees on “numbers, timelines and means” of the migrant redistribution.
Salvini welcomed the arrest, tweeting: “Law-breaking captain arrested. Pirate ship seized, maximum fine for foreign NGO.”
In the meantime, prosecutors in Sicily launched a probe into Rackete on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.
“Even though in the afternoon the prosecution has opened an investigation against me, at the same time they notified us that they will not help to bring the rescued off the ship,” Rackete said in a video statement on Twitter.
“I have decided to enter the harbor, which is free at night, on my own,” she added.
Rackete had previously said that she was worried about the psychological condition of those rescued off Libya.
The ship and its captain were met by applause from a group of supporters standing on the pier on Lampedusa.
“It’s been almost 60h since we declared a state of emergency. No one listened. No one took responsibility. Once more it’s up to us, to Cpt. #CarolaRackete and her crew, to bringing the 40 people to safety,” the charity said on Twitter.
With Italy restricting port entry, the vessel had been stuck in the Mediterranean, during a heat wave, since rescuing 53 migrants drifting in an inflatable raft on June 12.
The most vulnerable people on board were evacuated, but Salvini said that the rest were unwelcome.
On Wednesday, after more than two weeks at sea, Rackete decided she had no choice but to enter Italian waters illegally to bring the remaining migrants to safety.
The young captain has become a symbol of defiance and a left-wing hero in Italy.
“We are proud of our captain, she did exactly the right thing. She upheld the law of the sea and brought people to safety,” Sea-Watch chairman Johannes Bayer said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the founder of Spanish migrant rescue charity Proactiva Open Arms said that he was prepared to risk prison to save lives in the Mediterranean, following Sea-Watch’s example.
“If I have to pay the price through prison time or a fine in order to save the lives of some people, then I will do so,” the group’s founder Oscar Camps said by telephone.
The Open Arms ship on Thursday took to the waters off the Libyan coast, a decision that could already cost it a fine of up to 900,000 euros (US$1.02 million) from the Spanish government, Camps said.
“At the moment there is no organization out there [off the Libyan coast],” Camps said.
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