ROMA – The Italian authorities have issued a 60-day administrative detention order against the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), for alleged violations of maritime safety regulations. The detention order was issued following several rescue operations in the early hours of 23 August in the Central Mediterranean, in which the Geo Barents allegedly failed to provide timely information to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and put people’s lives in danger. MSF rejects these allegations, which are based on information provided by the Libyan Coast Guard.
Information from the Libyan Coast Guard, considered reliable. “The Libyan Coast Guard, funded by the EU and considered a reliable actor by Italy, has been accused by the United Nations of complicity in serious human rights violations in Libya. We are talking about crimes against humanity, collusion with traffickers, and being responsible for violent pushbacks at sea,” says Juan Matias Gil, MSF head of mission for search and rescue at sea. “We have been sanctioned for simply fulfilling our legal duty to save lives.”
People being pushed into the water from a boat. On 23 August, the MSF team on board the Geo Barents conducted five rescue operations. MSF is accused of failing to provide timely information for the third operation, which took place after the organisation’s team saw a significant number of people falling into the water near the vessel. “It was the middle of the night; we saw people jumping from a fibreglass boat, falling or being pushed into the water. The rescue team had no choice but to pull people out of the water as quickly as possible,” says Riccardo Gatti, head of the search and rescue team on board the Geo Barents. “There was an imminent danger of people drowning or getting lost in the darkness of the night.”
This is the third block for Geo Barents. As a result, the Geo Barents has been detained for the third time, for a longer period than previous detention orders. This is the twenty-third time that a humanitarian rescue ship has been detained because of the “Pietentosi Decree”, designed to hinder the life-saving activities of NGOs at sea. “This is yet another demonstration of how the Piantedosi Decree not only contravenes international and European law, but also conflicts with the obligation to act in situations of emergency when human lives are in danger,” adds Gil of MSF. “The authorities are forcing us to choose between rescuing people at sea and continuing our activities. But safeguarding human life is at the heart of MSF’s mission; we will therefore challenge this unlawful detention through appropriate legal channels.”
This limits research activities at sea. At the moment, the Geo Barents is unable to carry out rescue operations in the central Mediterranean due to the standstill. This – insist those of Doctors Without Borders – will further aggravate the already insufficient search and rescue capacity at sea, making the Central Mediterranean route – one of the most dangerous in the world for migrants – even more lethal.
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– 2024-08-28 01:58:30