The Court of Crotone confirms the suspension of the detention of Humanity 1

The judge of the civil section of the Court of Crotone, Antonio Albenzio, issued an order with which he confirms the suspension of the administrative arrest to which the German NGO’s ship had been subjected, carried out by the Ministry of the Interior with an inter-force blitz following the rescue in Libyan waters on March 2nd. First Iuventa and then Humanity 1: in a few days, the NGOs obtained important recognition for their commitment in the waters of the Mediterranean.

The Court, awaiting the hearing on the merits which will be held on 26 June, accepted the appeal presented by the lawyers of the German NGO SOS Humanity, the lawyers Giulia Crescini and Cristina Cecchini. The ship arrived in Crotone last March 4 after having rescued 77 people in the Sicilian channel and was arrested for having violated the Piantedosi decree in rescuing adrift migrants. According to the Libyan coast guard, you would have hindered the rescue of migrants. According to the NGO, however, the Libyans had also fired into the water to induce the rescuers to leave the rescue area. But for the Court of Crotone «it cannot be considered that the activity perpetrated by the Libyan coast guard can be qualified as rescue activity for the very ways in which it was explained”. It is a “documentally proven circumstance that the Libyan personnel were armed and had fired shots”. The judge clarifies that «at present it is not possible to consider Libya a safe place under the Hamburg Convention, as the Libyan context is characterized by serious and systematic violations of human rights and the 1951 Geneva Convention on Human Rights has never been ratified. refugees from Libya.” And therefore no safe place appears to have been made known by the Libyan authorities who intervened to coordinate the migrant recovery operations on site.

The decision on Humanity 1 could represent a precedent to which other courts can refer, since the activity of the Libyan coast guard does not comply with international agreements which establish the obligation to provide rescue at sea.