Italy's code of conduct for NGOs invloved in migrant rescue: text

Euronews

03.August 2017

Italy has asked all Non Governmental Organisations working from its ports to rescue migrants at sea to sign a code of conduct.

Here is the text of that document in English:







1 CODE OF CONDUCT FOR NGOs UNDERTAKING ACTIVITIES IN MIGRANTS’ RESCUE OPERATIONS AT SEA

Migration pressure on Italy does not seem to diminish and indeed is even more impressive than last year, as recognized by the Institutions of the European Union and its Member States. In this context, the main objective of the Italian Authorities in rescuing migrants is the protection of human life and the rights of the people, in full respect of international conventions. Nevertheless, the rescuing activity cannot be separated from a reception path, sustainable and shared with other Member States, in accordance with the principle of solidarity referred to in Article 80 of the TFEU.

On the occasion of the Informal meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, held on 6th July in Tallinn under the Estonian Presidency, the EU’s Interior Ministers welcomed the initiative of the Italian authorities to ensure that NGO’s vessels involved in Search and Rescue (SAR) activities operate within, and abide by, a set of clear rules, in the form of a code of conduct to be urgently finalised by the Italian authorities, in consultation with the Commission and in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, including the NGOs themselves. The Italian initiative was also included in the “Action Plan on measures to support Italy, reduce pressure along the Central Mediterranean route and increase solidarity” submitted by the European Commission on 4th July.

The Italian Authorities and the signatory NGOs carrying out SAR activities thus share the need to provide for specific arrangements to address the 2 complexity of rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, in compliance with this Code of Conduct, also safeguard the security of migrants and operators.

The NGOs that subscribe to this Code of Conduct undertake the following commitments:

* in accordance with relevant international law, commitment not to enter Libyan territorial waters, except in situations of grave and imminent danger requiring immediate assistance and not to obstruct Search & Rescue by the Libyan Coast Guard: with a view not to hinder the possibility for the competent National Authorities to intervene in their territorial waters, in compliance with international obligations;

* commitment to respect the obligation not to turn off or delaying the regular transmission times of AIS (Automatic Identification System) and LRIT (Long Range Identification and Tracking) signals, whenever on board (Chap. V SOLAS): in order to ensure safety of navigation and security of vessels, including those not involved in the search and rescue event but navigating in proximity of the area, where the event itself takes place;

* commitment not to make communications or send light signals to facilitate the departure and embarkation of vessels carrying migrants, without prejudice to the communications that are necessary in the course of SAR events to preserve the safety of life at sea: with the intention not to facilitate contacts with migrant smugglers and/or traffickers;

*commitment to communicate to the competent MRCC the technical suitability (regarding the vessel, its equipment and the crew’s training) for rescuing activities, without prejudice to the applicable domestic and international provisions regarding seaworthiness of vessels and other technical conditions necessary to operate ships: NGOs are requested to be equipped with instruments and resort to personnel whose technical suitability and capabilities in mass rescue operations under all conditions are ascertained. This is required in order to guarantee their professional know-how in rescuing activities. Such a commitment concerns, inter alia, the need for providing the ship’s master with proper information on stability, on- board reception capacity, individual and collective safety equipment, crew’s specific training and relevant capability certification, security aspects, on board hygienic and habitability conditions, preservation capacity of possible corpses. All of the above is without prejudice to the provisions of Article IV (force majeure cases) and Article V (people transportation in emergency situations) of SOLAS;

* commitment to ensure that when SAR cases occur where no official SRR is established, the ship’s master immediately notifies the competent Authorities of the flag States for security purposes and the MRCC competent for the nearest SRR as “better able to assist”, except in case the latter expressly refuses or doesn’t respond : information to the flag State qualifies more as a commitment, while notification to the competent MRCC recalls an existing obligation of international law;  commitment to respect the obligation under international law to keep constantly updated the competent MRCC or the OSC (On 4 Scene Coordinator) appointed by the latter as to the ongoing scenario and the developments of rescuing operations, as well as all the information regarding SAR or navigation security;

* commitment not to transfer those rescued on other vessels, except in case of a request of the competent MRCC and under its coordination also based on the information provided by the ship’s master: after the embarkation of survivors, NGO vessels should as a rule complete the operation by disembarking survivors in a safe port under the coordination of the responsible MRCC, except in situations recalled above;

* commitment to ensure that the competent Authorities of the flag State are constantly kept updated on the activities undertaken by the vessel and immediately notified of any relevant event concerning “maritime security”, in compliance with the principle of flag State jurisdiction under UNCLOS and other applicable rules of international law;

* commitment to cooperate with the competent MRCC, executing its instructions and informing it in advance of any initiative undertaken independently because it is deemed necessary and urgent;

* commitment to receive on board, possibly and for a period which is strictly necessary, upon request by the competent National Authorities, judicial police officers for information and evidence gathering with a view to conducting investigations related to migrant smuggling and/or trafficking in human beings, without prejudice of the ongoing humanitarian activity. The above is without 5 prejudice to the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag State on the vessel under UNCLOS and other applicable rules of international law, to the competences of the shipmaster and to the different mandates and competences of the legal entities involved as provided under national and international law, with which police officers do not, and shall not, interfere: allowing access on board of their naval assets, upon request by the competent National Authorities, of police personnel who will conduct preliminary inquiries and investigations, also following specific indications by the competent Judicial Authority;

* commitment to declare, in conformity with legislation of the flag State, to the competent authorities of the State where NGO is registered, all sources of financing for their rescuing activity at sea and to communicate, upon request, such information to the Italian authorities, in accordance with the principles of transparency;

* commitment to loyal cooperation with the Public Security Authority of the migrants’ intended place of disembarkation, including by transmitting relevant information of interest for investigation purposes to the Italian Police Authorities, within the respect of international refugee and data protection law and of the different mandates and competences of the legal entities involved as provided under national and international law,: such an obligation will result, by way of example and not limited to, in a commitment to provide – at least two hours before the arrival at the port – the documents that should be completed during the phases of rescue and journey to the port, after the primary assistance activities – i.e. the “maritime incident report” (summary document of the event) and the “sanitary incident report” (summary document of health situation on board);

* commitment to collect, during the activities, once migrants are rescued and if possible, the makeshift boats and the outboard engines used by migrants’ traffickers/smugglers and commitment to immediately notify the ICC (International Coordination Centre) of the Triton Operation; the coordinating MRCC shall anyway be informed on the aspects relating to navigation security and pollution risks: such a commitment is an important way of cooperating with the EU Triton Operation and the competent national Authorities against traffickers and smugglers, as well as with the MRCC for information on navigation security and pollution risks.
   
Failure to subscribe to this Code of Conduct or to comply with the commitments set out therein may result in the adoption by the Italian Authorities of measures addressed to the relevant vessels, in compliance with applicable domestic and international law and as required in the public interest of saving human lives while guaranteeing shared and sustainable reception of migration flows.

Any failure to comply with the commitments set out in this Code of Conduct will be communicated by the Italian Authorities to the flag State and to the State where the NGO is registered.


Source: http://www.euronews.com/2017/08/03/text-of-italys-code-of-conduct-for-ngos-involved-in-migrant-rescue

Italy toughens tone on NGO migrant rescue boats

The Local / AFP

3 August 2017

Italy has warned NGOs operating migrant rescue boats in the Mediterranean they will not be allowed to continue if they do not sign up to new rules governing their operations.

"If NGOs do not sign up (to a new code of conduct), it is difficult to see how they can continue operating," Interior Minister Marco Minniti said in an interview with Turin daily La Stampa.

 Minniti's warning came a day after Italian authorities impounded a boat operated by German aid organisatiion Jugend Rettet on suspicion its crew effectively collaborated with people traffickers in a way that facilitated
illegal immigration.

The aid organisation, which has only been operational for a year, declined to comment on the substance of detailed allegations made against it by Italian prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio.

"For us the rescue of human life is and will be our top priority, so we are very sorry we will not be able to operate in the search and rescue zone at the moment," the organisation said in a statement on social media.

"We can only assess all the accusations currently being made after we have gathered all the information and can assess the situation."

Italian authorities had been monitoring Jugend Rettet's boat, the Iuventa, since October.

Its crew is suspected to taking on board dinghy loads of migrants delivered directly to them by people traffickers and allowing the smugglers to make off with the vessels to be used again.

At least one such meeting allegedly took place only 1.3 miles off the Libyan coast, according to the prosecutor's file, the contents of which were published by Italian media.

The crew are suspected of having flouted the authority of the Italian coastguard, which oversees rescue operations in the zone, out of humanitarian zeal rather than for any other motives.

Under the code of conduct, boats like the Iuventa would notably have to have an Italian police officer on board monitoring their activities.

 Only three of the nine NGOs involved in search and rescue operations have so far agreed to abide by the code: Save The Children, Malta-based MOAS and Spain's Pro-Activa Open Arms.

The latter said on Thursday it regarded the new rules as unnecessary but acceptable as they would not involve any "significant change or impediment" to its rescue operations.

Among those who have refused to sign is the Nobel Prize-winning organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Minniti meanwhile said a sharp fall over recent weeks in the number of migrants arriving in Italy following rescues was an indication that efforts to beef up the Libyan coastguard and cooperation with local mayors was bearing fruit.

"In recent days we have begun to see light at the end of the tunnel," the minister said. He revealed plans for further talks this month with Libyan mayors on economic development initiatives and with Chad, Niger and Mali on measures to reduce the number of migrants leaving those countries in the hope
of reaching Europe.

Source: https://www.thelocal.it/20170803/taly-toughens-tone-on-ngo-migrant-rescue-boats

Irish naval vessel rescues 109 migrants off Tripoli coast

LÉ William Butler Yeats deployed to Mediterranean in mid-July as part of Operation Sophia

The Irish Times

30 July 2017

The Irish naval vessel LÉ William Butler Yeats on Sunday rescued 109 migrants off the coast of Tripoli, in its first search and rescue mission since deploying to the Mediterranean earlier this month.

Following a request from the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre, the ship successfully located and rescued the people 56 nautical miles north east of Tripoli, a Defence Forces spokesman confirmed.

“The rescue commenced at 12.30pm and all migrants were on board by 4.30pm and are now receiving food, water and medical treatment where required,” he said.

The ship was due to transfer the rescued people to an Italian coast guard vessel later on Sunday and will conduct further search and rescue operations if required.

LÉ William Butler Yeats deployed to the Mediterranean July 14th as part of the Government’s response to the migrant crisis in Europe.

It was commissioned in October last year at a ceremony in Galway.

Ahead of the ship’s departure on its mission, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he did not agree with concerns expressed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) about Ireland’s participation in the European Union’s Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean.

MSF, which has two ships involved in migrant rescue, had warned that Ireland’s shift from humanitarian to what it described as a “military focused” EU operation could “weaken dedicated search and rescue capacity”.

Mr Varadkar said the EU operation had a UN mandate and was supported by the Government and Dáil.

Operation Sophia, initiated by the EU in June 2015, has a core mandate of identifying, capturing and disposing of vessels and other “enabling assets” used or suspected of being used by migrant smugglers or traffickers.

It has already been engaged in training members of the Libyan coastguard and its aim is to build good relations with the Tripoli administration which would lead to an invitation into Libyan territorial waters to pursue smugglers.

Cabinet approval for Naval Service transition to the EU mission was secured by Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe early in July, and a motion was carried in the Dáil by 80 votes to 38 as part of the “triple lock” mechanism for approving Defence Force participation overseas.


Source:  https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-naval-vessel-rescues-109-migrants-off-tripoli-coast-1.3171769

NGO with ties to Pope accused of running ‘taxi service’ for immigrants

Crux

By Claire Giangravè

29 July  2017

The founder of the Spanish NGO “Proactiva Open Arms,” Oscar Camps who has met with Pope Francis twice on the issue of immigration, is defending his organization and others against charges that they are driving up the number of immigrants by encouraging people to risk dangerous sea voyages in unreliable vessels in order to grab EU cash for immigrant help.

ROME - A Spanish NGO that operates in the Mediterranean Sea, and which has ties to Pope Francis through its founder, has been accused of allegedly colluding with traffickers in order to ‘taxi’ migrants from the Libyan coasts to Italy.

There is no suggestion that Pope Francis approved of, or was even aware of, the controversial activity.

This is the latest development in an ongoing debate in Europe that sees NGOs under attack for taking their boats close to the North African coast, and consequentially encouraging traffickers to use unfit vessels confident that rescue is on the way.

According to some critics, the NGOs make a profit, alongside the traffickers, by cashing in on the millions of dollars set aside for the migrant-handling business in the E.U.

Images have surfaced on the web showing that the boats belonging to the Spanish NGO “Proactiva Open Arms” were as close as one nautical mile from the Libyan coast on July 25, well outside the international waters in which they’re supposed to operate.

The founder of Proactiva, Oscar Camps, has met with Pope Francis on two occasions. The first time was in 2016, when he gifted the pontiff with the lifejacket of a six-year old Syrian girl who died at sea.

Pope Francis used the vest to illustrate the plight of migrants when talking to over four hundred children immigrants and refugees of different ethnicities, cultures and religions at the Vatican in 2016.  “He brought me this jacket,” the pope said referring to Camps. “With tears in his eyes he said to me, ‘Father, I couldn’t do it - there was a little girl on the waves, and I did all I could, but I couldn’t save her: only her life vest was left.’”

The second was a 40-minute audience on April 22, just as the allegations against NGOs were beginning to surface in Italian media. While speaking to the press after the meeting, Camps said that the audience was an opportunity to talk about the stories of those saved at sea, and that the pope is the only global leader who has the migrant issue at heart.

Francis has effectively made the migrant crisis a cornerstone of his pontificate. While the pope recognizes that “every country has the right to control its borders,” as he told Spanish newspaper El País in January, he has also called the global community to action and solidarity with migrants.

Concerning the recent accusations against NGOs, Catholic media outlets took different approaches. On one side, the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, was quick to criticize the scandal, that weighed on “the skin of migrants.” On the other, an editorial in Avvenire, the daily of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), insisted that the world of NGOs is “demanding and good,” and that “one cannot remain neutral and indifferent in front of the efforts made to defame its image.”

In a tweet, Camps defended himself from accusations of colluding with traffickers by claiming that the “AIS signal has been hacked to show we’re in Libyan waters,” and that they updated the Italian coast guard every two hours about their position. (The reference is to the Automatic Identification System, a positioning system for ships used to avoid collisions.)

Skeptical about Camps’ claims, various nationalist and anti-immigration Twitter accounts have decried the behavior of the Open Arms vessel, comparing it to a “taxi service,” adding that it only leads to more migrants braving the Mediterranean Sea and consequentially more deaths.

“In reality, there is very little evidence and proof of this type of argument,” Luca Raineri, analyst and researcher at the St. Anna University of Pisa specialized in Northern Africa, told Crux in an interview, in essence supporting Camps.

“We know that migrant flows are caused by all kinds of dynamics, and that it is not the presence of NGOs that stimulates, eases or amplifies these dynamics,” he said.

“To talk of a ‘taxi service’ seems to me, frankly, to be an excessive statement,” he said.

In a May interview with Crux, Mario Marazziti, president of the committee for social affairs at the Italian House of Representatives and former spokesmen for the community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement particularly active in the migrant sector, took a similar position.

“Without NGOs, the number of those who die at sea would be double, probably much, much higher,” Marazziti underlined.

“If NGOs did not approach the 12-mile line from the Libyan coasts, but stopped at 30, there would be 600 square maritime miles unchecked, and a much higher number of casualties. It’s math. Only this time, it involves human lives,” he said.

The Italian government, in an effort to exercise further control and monitoring of NGO’s running Search and Rescue operations in the Mediterranean, has proposed a ‘code of conduct’ to be signed by the nine organizations active there.

These are Doctors Without Borders, Moas, SOS Méditerranée, Sea Watch, Sea Eye, Proactiva Open Arms, LifeBoat, Jugend Rettet and Save the Children.

The code includes 13 points, presented on July 26, and to be signed on Monday July 31. The most contested points are:

* An interdiction from approaching the Libyan waters if not “in circumstances of extreme and immediate danger.”
* An obligation to keep the transponders on the boat active at all times.
* Not moving the people saved onto other boats.
* Declaring funding sources.
* Allowing the judicial police on board for routine checks.

Organizations that refuse to sign the code of conduct may not be allowed to have access to the Italian ports.

On July 28, NGOs were asked to submit their proposed changes to the code, which mostly focused on the point that allows the police to board the boats. The Italian Ministry of the Interior said that important “steps forward” had been made and that the meetings proceeded in an environment of “collaboration and understanding.”

Meanwhile, Proactiva Open Arms found 13 bodies of migrants off the coast of Libya on July 25. “Several pregnant women and mothers among the (dead),” Camps wrote on Twitter.

“And we are apparently the only ones who need a code of conduct.”

Source:  https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/07/29/ngo-ties-pope-accused-running-taxi-service-immigrants/

Eight migrants dead off Libya as Italy outlines naval mission

MailOnline/ AFP

1 August 2017

The bodies of eight migrants have been found at sea off the coast of Libya by rescuers coming to the aid of four rubber dinghies, the Italian coastguard said Tuesday.

Some 500 survivors were pulled to safety, the coastguard told AFP, illustrating the huge challenge that continues to bedevil authorities as people try to reach Europe.

The latest deaths came as the Italian government presented plans for a naval mission in Libyan territorial waters that aims to reduce the flow of migrants from the coast.

Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, which was taking part in the rescues, said the corpses were recovered by the Santa Lucia merchant ship.

"We are here to stop more people drowning, today eight dead and four drifting boats" in distress, Proactiva's founder Oscar Champs said on Twitter.

The charity said there were 79 women and 39 minors -- including four young children -- among those rescued.

Nearly 95,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy this year, a rise of one percent on the same period last year, according to the interior ministry.

The government intends to send a logistics ship that could support Libyan units and will also offer a patrol boat, Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told lawmakers on Tuesday.

However Italy has no intention to create a naval blockade, which would be a "hostile act", she said, insisting that support for the Libyan mission was the aim and cooperation was necessary.

"Italy has always respected Libyan sovereignty," Pinotti added.

At least 2,385 migrants have died during the perilous crossing since January, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

The latest deaths come as aid groups -- privately-funded boats performed 26 percent of rescues in 2016, rising to 35 percent so far this year -- are caught in a row over how they operate.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) refused Monday to sign a code of conduct on migrant-saving operations in the Mediterranean.

Sticking points cited were obligations for rescue boats to operate with an Italian police official on board and a ban on moving rescued migrants from one aid vessel to another while still at sea.

The code, created to address the biggest migrant phenomenon in Europe since World War II, lays down 13 rules Italy insists must be followed to prevent aid groups rescuing migrants from acting as a magnet for human traffickers.

But the rules have been widely criticised by the NGOs as making it more difficult for them to save lives.

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4751158/Eight-migrants-dead-Libya-Italy-outlines-naval-mission.html

Italy to respect Libyan sovereignty in naval mission

EC says ports not guaranteed if NGOs don't sign code

ANSAmed

1 August 2017

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 1 - Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told the Lower House and Senate defence and foreign affairs committees that the government's proposed naval mission to support the Libyan coast guard's efforts against human traffickers "does not harm Libyan sovereignty in any way". She added: "our aim is to reinforce it". Pinotti stressed that the government's proposed naval mission to support Libya stemmed from a July 23 letter from Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj requesting "naval and technical support". She said the government would provide this via "technical, logistical and operative support to Libyan naval units accompanying them with joint, coordinated activities". Premier Paolo Gentiloni announced last week that Italy was considering a request from Libya for the help in combatting human traffickers after meeting Libyan Sarraj in Rome.

Most of the over 93,000 migrants to have landed in Italy so far this year started their journey across the Mediterranean from Libya, which has been affected by chaos since a Paris-led campaign contributed to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

It is hoped that the mission with the Libyan coast guard can help stem this flow, which is causing massive strain on the Italian authorities.

Gentiloni said Friday that the use of Italian vessels to support Libya would not entail "an enormous deployment of big feels and air squadrons".

The EU is working in "full coordination with Italian authorities", the spokesperson for EU foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ray, said Tuesday when she was asked whether Brussels backs the new Italian mission of support to the Libyan coast guard. Ray said EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini was in "regular contact with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni". Asked whether the EU meant to widen the Sophia operation, the EU's naval mission to combat the trafficking of migrants in the central-southern Mediterranean, along the lines of Italy's intervention, Ray said the EU first intended to see what Italy would do. She also noted that the European Council has just extended the Sophia operation, until the end of 2018. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), meanwhile, said Tuesday that it will continue to operate in the Mediterranean after refusing to sign a code of conduct at the Italian interior ministry for NGOs involved in migrant rescues at sea. "We did not accept the code of conduct because it does not protect our work and there is already international law that regulates everything," MSF Director General Gabriele Eminente told State broadcaster RAI. "We'll continue to work in the Mediterranean anyway, but at the moment I do not understand what this failure to sign entails". The introduction of the code of conduct comes after the NGOs involved in migrant rescues came under fire from some quarters in Italy for allegedly encouraging human traffickers.

The European Commission said Tuesday that it welcomed that some NGOs had signed the Italian code of conduct, pointing out that Brussels supported the document's preparation and calling on the "biggest number" possible to sign up. It said NGOs that do not sign will not be guaranteed to be able to take rescued migrants to Italian ports, if they were saved in areas outside Italian competence. It said international law stipulating that migrants be taken to a safe port remains valid, but stressed that this does not necessarily mean the nearest. (ANSAmed).


Source:  http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2017/08/01/italy-to-respect-libyan-sovereignty-in-naval-mission_54c22584-a181-4086-9771-1f0ae6b75ae5.html

Italian authorities impound German NGO rescue vessel for 'facilitating illegal immigration'

VIDEO - Lampedusa, Italy 02.08.2017 – Italian Coast Guard boards the German NGO vessel "Iuventa": http://videofq.meride.tv/fq2/video/folder85/ANSA95126_mp4_fq2.mp4

[02.08.2017]

The "Iuventa" vessel of the German NGO "Jugend Rettet" which did not adhere to the code of conduct was intercepted off Lampedusa overnight and subsequently escorted by the Italian Coast Guard back to port for inspection.

Several coast guard cutters were deployed to escort the "Iuventa" and security was tight around the peer where the vessel docked. Initially the Lampedusa Port Authority Chief - Lieutenant Paolo Monaco who boarded and inspected the vessel for over two hours said: "It is only a routine procedure that needs to be conducted. We will now control documents of the entire crew and if everything is in order the vessel may leave Lampedusa".

On board the ship, during the inspection two Syrian citizens were found which were later escorted to a local refugee reception facility.

Later in the afternoon in an official statement of the Italian Police it was announced that the German NGO "Iuventa" vessel which regularly conducts rescues of migrants near the Libyan coast was impounded in connection with the investigation opened already in October and during which sufficient information was uncovered suggesting that the vessel was used "to aid and abet in clandestine immigration".

The district prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio who sought and obtained the court order to seize the boat said: "The seizure of the vessel was requested to prevent recurrence of the crime. There are three controversial episodes - he added - but there are other occurrences which will help to argue the case that this is a commonplace behavior".

This is not just a simple preventive measure. The vessel seizure is linked to a much larger investigation by the district prosecutor office in collaboration with the mobile team in Trapani and the Central Operational Service of the Anti-Crime Police Directorate. The Trapani prosecutors Ambrogio Cartosio and his deputy Andrea Tarondo are currently investigating all NGOs in the alleged collaboration with human traffickers.

* NOTE * The NGO “Jugend Rettet e.V.” was founded in 2015 in Germany with the objective of migrant rescue in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship “Iuventa” was bought two years ago in Emden, Germany and underwent a conversion from an old fishing cutter to a vessel adapted for NGO needs & purposes. The vessel is currently registered in Amsterdam under the Dutch flag.

German NGO official website: https://jugendrettet.org/en/  and Twitter: https://twitter.com/jugendrettet?lang=de

02.08.2017  Lampedusa - Police seizing the German NGO vessel "Iuventa"


Source:

* 02.08.2017 - La Stampa - "Intercepted crew conversations on-board the "Iuventa" / Le intercettazioni dell’equipaggio a bordo della Iuventa": http://www.lastampa.it/2017/08/02/multimedia/italia/cronache/le-intercettazioni-dellequipaggio-a-bordo-della-iuventa-K9t52R1PcFkyhYjOox6y0J/pagina.html
* 02.08.2017 - tg24.sky.it - "Migrants, NGO seized ship. The Prosecutor's Office: contacts with traffickers / Migranti, sequestrata nave Ong. La Procura: contatti con i trafficanti": http://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2017/08/02/migranti-sequestro-nave-iuventa-ong-lampedusa.html
* 02.08.2017 - La Stampa - "NGO ship stopped and seized off Lampedusa. Investigation alleged collaborations with the traffickers / Nave di una Ong fermata e sequestrata al largo di Lampedusa. Si indaga su presunte collaborazioni con gli scafisti": http://www.lastampa.it/2017/08/02/italia/cronache/migranti-nave-ong-fermata-al-largo-di-lampedusa-etw7ZCW0tUxXQ8IAEX9k8I/pagina.html
* 02.08.2017 - La Repubblica - Migrants, Trapani prosecutor seizes ship: 'collaboration between German NGOs and traffickers' / Migranti, procura Trapani sequestra nave Iuventa: "Intese tra Ong tedesca e trafficanti": http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/08/02/news/migranti_codice_ong_in_vigore_fermata_nave_in_mare_per_controlli-172151820/
* 02.08.2017 - Times & Colonist - "Italy seizes German group's rescue boat in immigration probe": http://www.timescolonist.com/italy-seizes-german-group-s-rescue-boat-in-immigration-probe-1.21552009