A decree of the right-wing government in Italy allows rescue operations in a maximum of one case. However, the “Sea-Eye 4” took people from two wooden boats on board.
On Tuesday evening, the crew of the ship “Sea-Eye 4” rescued a total of 32 people from a wooden boat. The distress case in the Maltese sea rescue zone had previously been reported by the crew of a sailing yacht. At that time, the German-registered rescue ship already had 17 people on board who had been rescued two days earlier. The “Sea-Eye 4” was on its way to Ortona on the Adriatic coast to disembark them.
The port, which is about 2500 kilometres away, was assigned to the captain of the “Sea-Eye 4” by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre. This is one of the policies of the new right-wing government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The long routes will keep the ships of aid organisations out of the central Mediterranean for a longer period of time.
The decree issued on 24 February also stipulates that rescue ships must immediately head for theassigned port after an initial rescue. Accordingly, it is forbidden to provide assistance to other boats in distress at sea. This is the government’s reaction to cases in which the sea rescuers take more people on board on their way to a port. Responsible for implementing the decree is the Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini, who took a hard line against sea rescuers as Minister of the Interior from June 2018 to September 2019.
Captains could face fines of up to €50,000 for violating the new regulations. In addition, the ships could be arrested by the Italian authorities. This is what happened to the “Geo Barents”, operated by Doctors Without Borders. The organisation had to pay €10,000 for a double rescue this year, and the ship was blocked for 30 days as a punishment.
The association Sea-Eye, which operates the ship “Sea-Eye 4”, now fears further restrictions on its missions. Italy is assigning more and more distant ports for disembarkation, making missions financially much more expensive.
So far, however, it is unclear how the transport authorities will react to the incident. The “Sea-Eye 4” will arrive in Ortona on Monday at the latest, “nd” was told by Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye. Restrictions, however, are foreseeable, Isler said. After the rescue ship changed course for the second emergency at sea, the crew received messages from Italian authorities. In these messages, the captain was asked to set course again for the assigned port in Ortona.
On the hull of the ship is the promise “LeaveNoOneToDie”, Isler points to “nd”. That is why the crew of the “Sea-Eye 4” u-turned on its way to Ortona. “The obligation under international law to come to the aid of people in distress at sea weighs more heavily than national decrees,” says the association’s president.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: The rescue on Tuesday (Soizic Roux/ Sea-Eye).
