Germany and Italy clash over migrant rescue ships and returns

The detention of a German rescue ship in Italy has reignited a long-running dispute over the role of private vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean. Italian authorities detained the Sea-Watch 5 for 45 days last weekend and fined the German organisation operating it €7,500.

On 13 August, the vessel rescued six people in the Mediterranean and, according to Sea-Watch, encountered an unidentified armed boat and documented the deaths of eight people.

The Italian Interior Ministry said the vessel was detained for failing to inform the Libyan coastguard about the rescue operation.

Sea-Watch said it planned to appeal against the detention, probably in the coming week.

"The detention of Sea-Watch 5 is based on the claim that the ship's crew failed to inform Libyan actors about the rescue in international waters. Yet the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre never instructed us to do so," Sea-Watch spokesperson Giulia Messmer said.

Messmer added that the Libyan coastguard was present at the scene following the rescue and had communicated with the Sea-Watch crew by radio.

The case is the latest in a long-running dispute between Italy and German sea rescue organisations operating in the Mediterranean.

Critics of the NGOs, including politicians from Germany's conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Alternative for Germany (AfD), have accused rescue organisations of encouraging dangerous Mediterranean crossings and indirectly assisting people-smuggling networks.

The organisations reject such accusations and argue that their operations save lives on one of the world's deadliest migration routes.

A central point of contention is where people rescued at sea should be taken. NGO vessels generally bring those they rescue to European ports rather than returning them to Libya, which the United Nations does not consider a safe place for migrants to be returned to.