CROTONE That of Libyan coast guard it was a’‘failure’ rescue operation and so “no obstructive conduct can be found” in regards to Humanity 1 “which, in this context, was the only vessel to intervene to fulfill, in the sense recognized by international sources, the duty to rescue migrants at sea”.
This is what the judge of the civil section of the Court of Crotone, Antonio Albenzioin the’order with which confirms the suspension of the administrative detention order to which she had been subjected ship of the German NGO Humanity 1 following the rescue of 77 migrants occurred on 4 March 2024 in the Sicilian channel.
The ship, which belongs to the German NGO SOS Humanity, was assigned Crotone as the port of disembarkation where, As soon as it docked, it was detained by the Italian authorities. The civil section of the Court of Crotone had on March 18th the suspension of the administrative arrest has already been ordered upon appeal by the German NGO unheard of the other party.
Now the judge has heard the set off: in addition to SOS Humanity, they were established, through theCatanzaro State Attorney’s Office, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Harbor Master’s Office, Ministry of the Interior and Police Headquarters of Crotone, Ministry of Economy and Guardia di Finanza naval operational section of Crotone.
The State Attorney’s Office reiterated the accusation against the humanitarian ship of failure to comply with the removal order formulated by the Libyan patrol boat intervened in migrant rescue operations.
Waiting for thehearing on the merits which will be held on June 26thThe judge in the new precautionary order rejects the accusatory theory maintaining that «it cannot be considered that the activity perpetrated by the Libyan coast guard can be qualified as a rescue activity due to the very methods with which this activity was carried out. In fact, it constitutes an undisputed and documented circumstance that the Libyan personnel were armed and that, on the occasion of such activities, he also had shots fired; Likewise, it is a circumstance which can be deduced from the correspondence in the documents that no safe place appears to have been made known by the same Libyan authorities who intervened to coordinate the recovery operations of the migrants on site”.
The judge of the Court of Crotone, citing al Hamburg Convention they agreements between the Italian and Libyan governments signed in 2017 and the 2021 UN High Commissioner reportsmaintains that «at present It is not possible to consider Libya a safe place pursuant to the Hamburg Convention, the Libyan context being characterized by serious and systematic violations of human rights and not having been Libya never ratified the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees».
Ultimately, for the judge, “given the lack of a concomitant rescue operation carried out by the Libyan coast guard, no removal order is justifiable against the only vessel that carried out operations in fulfillment of the absolute duty to rescue at sea”. (AGI)
