The Sea Watch 3, after two weeks at sea and two more nights spent a mile from the port, has docked at Lampedusa without authorisation. Commander Carola Rackete has been arrested; the 40 migrants on board are safe.
The Sea Watch 3 docked last night at around 1:50 am in the port of Lampedusa without authorisation from the Italian port authorities. The 40 shipwrecked migrants who were on board were brought off the vessel at around 6 in the morning and transferred to the reception centre at contrada Imbricola on the island, while the ship's captain Carola Rackete, who had invoked a state of necessity to justify the docking, was arrested on charges of resisting or using violence against a warship: she faces between three and ten years in prison.
Leggi anche: Chi è Carola Rackete, la comandante della Sea Watch 3
For three days and two nights, the Sea Watch 3 had been stationed a mile from the coast of Lampedusa, having entered Italian territorial waters by forcing the blockade imposed by the authorities.
The decision of the ship's captain, German national Carola Rackete, had provoked a reaction from the Italian government, which regarded the Sea Watch crew as outlaws: the main accusation was directed at the Netherlands, with the foreign ministry officially requesting an explanation from the Dutch ambassador to Italy as to why the Amsterdam government had not intervened in the affair involving the vessel, which sails under a Dutch flag.
The captain of the Sea Watch 3 had made her move on the morning of 26 June, announcing that she had decided to enter the port of Lampedusa: "I know what I risk, but the 42 shipwrecked people on board are at the end of their tether. I am bringing them to safety. In 14 days no political or legal solution has been possible; Europe has abandoned us." In the final hours, one migrant had been allowed to disembark together with his son for health reasons.
Two weeks ago the Sea Watch vessel, belonging to the German non-governmental organisation of the same name, had rescued 42 migrants from a stricken dinghy in the Mediterranean, thus beginning its own odyssey at sea: for the first time, the Libyan coastguard had authorised disembarkation in Libya, but the Sea Watch crew and the migrants had refused to return to Africa given that Tripoli is not to be considered a safe port — a position shared by the United Nations as well.
The same had happened with Tunisia, which does not have a jurisdiction offering protection for refugees. The vessel had requested authorisation to disembark in Malta, but the Valletta authorities had refused, as had the Italian authorities when asked about disembarkation at Lampedusa. And so, for two weeks, the Sea Watch 3 had been sailing aimlessly, skirting the boundary between international and Italian territorial waters — as could be seen in the iconic image taken from the port authority radar, which, according to the Italian organisation Mediterranea Saving Humans, traces "a diagram of hatred tending to infinity".
Because NGOs operating at sea must comply with international laws and maritime rescue treaties (such as the Hamburg Convention), which stipulate that disembarkations must take place at a "safe port" — that is, in a nearby territory, but above all one where respect for fundamental human rights is guaranteed.
For example, Libya is not considered a safe port by the United Nations and the European Union owing to human rights violations. Tunisia does not have comprehensive asylum legislation, while Malta has not ratified two maritime rescue conventions, meaning neither is safe. Germany and the Netherlands, meanwhile, are clearly not nearby, as they face the North Sea rather than the Mediterranean.
Yesterday, a moving plea for help arrived from the migrants on board the Sea Watch: "We are all tired, worn out, exhausted: think of a person who has just come out of prison and fled from Libya and now finds themselves sitting here, and if they're not sitting they're lying down. Imagine how that person must feel," says one of them in a video published by Forum Lampedusa Sociale. "They inevitably risk feeling unwell. We can't take it any more, we're as if in prison, we have nothing, we can't do anything, we can't move or walk because the boat is small and there are many of us, there is no space. Italy won't allow us to land: truly, we are asking for your help, we are asking for the help of humanity, we are asking for the help of people on land. It is not easy here, the heat is making us suffer, please help us."
The appeal had been heeded neither by the Italian authorities nor by the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights, which had rejected Sea Watch's application for an interim measure to allow disembarkation so that the shipwrecked people could submit requests for international protection: the Strasbourg Court had responded that the conditions for disembarkation were not met, because the people on board "are not exposed to a real risk of irreparable harm," but that the Italian government must "nonetheless continue to provide the necessary assistance to persons who are vulnerable on account of their age and state of health."
Throughout Italy, sit-in demonstrations of solidarity with the Sea Watch and the 42 migrants on board were held over these days: in Rome, called upon by Mediterranea Saving Humans — the network behind the Mare Jonio vessel, which is still under seizure by the Italian authorities — several hundred people had gathered in Piazza San Pietro.
