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

Italian prosecutors widen investigation to include MSF over migrant rescues: source

Reuters

5 August 2017

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors are investigating leading humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a legal source said on Saturday, over its role in rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Italian police on Wednesday seized a migrant rescue boat operated by German organization Jugend Rettet on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.

A legal source now says that MSF is also part of the investigation over the alleged rescue of migrants carried out just off the Libyan coast when there was no immediate threat to their safety.

MSF said in a statement it had not been notified of the inquiry and that it stood ready to cooperate with prosecutors since similar accusations first surfaced in the press months ago.

"We hope any doubts can be dispelled soon to end this trickling of accusations that poisons the atmosphere in an ever gloomier situation," it said.

Italy is under pressure to manage new arrivals because some 600,000 migrants have reached it by sea from North Africa since 2014. Immigration has become a potent political issue ahead of elections in spring 2018.

In a press interview on Saturday, Luigi Di Maio, who is expected to lead the populist Five-Star movement in next year's vote, called for "an immediate stop to the sea-taxi service". The Five-Star is ahead of the ruling Democratic Party in polls.

Rome has asked eight NGOs to sign a code of conduct for the southern Mediterranean, including a demand that they carry an armed policemen on board their boats.

Only four aid groups have agreed to it.

Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti urged the four NGOs that have not signed the document to do so.

"Those who do not sign cannot remain part of Italy's rescue system, though nobody is questioning the law of the sea and international treaties," he said in an interview with Saturday's Il Fatto Quotidiano.

"Because migrants arrive in Italy, we must find a balance between their rights and those of the country that hosts them. We need complete trust between those who carry out the rescues and the country that opens up its ports," he said.

MSF said in the statement that it would respect most of the code's tenets, but could not sign it as it neglected humanitarian principles and elements which it considers essential for rescues to be effective.

Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Andrew Bolton


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-idUSKBN1AL0R1?il=0

Over 800 migrants rescued from Mediterranean Sea: Libyan Coast Guard

Libyan Coast Guard teams have rescued over 800 migrants from the Mediterranean waters off the coast of the Arab nation, rescue services said on Saturday.

ANSAmed / IANS

5 August 2017

Tripoli: Libyan Coast Guard teams have rescued over 800 migrants from the Mediterranean waters off the coast of the Arab nation, rescue services said on Saturday.

The largest rescue operation, which took place at dawn off the city of Sabratah, managed to bring to safety some 462 people found adrift on two inflatable boats and two wooden barges, Efe news reported.

Among those rescued were Tunisians, Moroccans, Algerians, Libyans and Sudanese. Another group of 128 migrants, including several women and children, was rescued from an inflatable boat on Thursday north of Sabratah.

A total of 43 migrants from Pakistan and Arab countries, as well as several Libyan families, were also rescued by a team from the Coast Guard of the Libyan city of Misrata in the early hours of Friday.

Source: "Marina Libia, recupera e salva oltre 800 migranti ": http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2017/08/04/marina-libia-fermati-e-arrestati-oltre-800-migranti-_45a5d7be-9f4e-44bf-99ef-c56b3505f36c.html

"Over 800 migrants rescued from Mediterranean Sea: Libyan Coast Guard":  http://zeenews.india.com/world/over-600-migrants-rescued-from-mediterranean-sea-libyan-coast-guard-2030561.html

 Libyan Coast Guard and Port Security: https://www.facebook.com/CoastGuardly/photos/pcb.1457238057697220/1457224897698536/

Anti-migrant ship stalks NGO rescue vessel off Libya

'Defend Europe' alliance accuses NGOs of smuggling thousands of illegal migrants to Europe, endangering security of continent

Middle East Eye / AFP

By Giovanni Grezzi

5 August 2017

A ship carrying far-right campaigners who aim to turn migrant boats back to Africa, was following an NGO rescue vessel with an AFP reporter on board in the waters off Libya.

The activists' "Defend Europe" mission was financed by a crowd-funding initiative organised by young anti-immigration campaigners from France, Italy and Germany.

Their 40-metre ship named C-Star, hired by "Generation Identity," arrived on Saturday in an area where tens of thousands of migrants have been rescued from unseaworthy trafficker boats in recent years.

The boat spent 30-45 minutes shadowing the aid ship Aquarius at a distance of a few hundred metres, then continued shadowing it from farther back.

   
Today 125 migrants were rescued at sea off Tripoli by the Libyan Coast Guard #Libya https://twitter.com/IOM_Libya/status/893832486169575425/photo/1

— IOM Libya (@IOM_Libya) August 5, 2017


The Aquarius, a converted coastguard patrol boat, is operated by French aid group SOS Mediterranee and the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Its crew would not comment on whether they regarded the C-Star's proximity as intimidating. Maritime charts indicated the NGO boat's speed doubled in the time the far-right vessel was close to it.

The two boats were about 20 nautical miles off Libya in an area east of the capital Tripoli.

On its website, the Defend Europe alliance accuses NGOs of "smuggling hundred of thousands of illegal migrants to Europe, endangering the security and future of our continent" and vows to "do something against it".

French activist Clement Galant posted a video from the boat on Twitter on 1 August in which he says the C-Star will accompany any migrant boat it comes across back to the African coast.

The Defend Europe initiative has been denounced by humanitarian organisations as a potentially highly dangerous publicity stunt.

Forcing a migrant boat that had reached international waters back to Libya, from where most depart, would be illegal under international law.

NGO-chartered boats have rescued over a third of the almost 100,000 people who have been picked up from often distressed trafficker vessels off Libya this year and taken to Italy.

But the involvement of privately funded boats in an operation mainly conducted by Italian navy and coastguard vessels has become subject to increasing scrutiny.

Critics say the NGOs are making it too easy for the traffickers to guarantee would-be migrants safe passage to Europe, creating a "pull" factor at best and operating a taxi service at worst.

Italian authorities last week impounded one NGO boat, the Iuventa, which is operated by German association Jugend Rettet, and accused its crew of being in direct contact with traffickers to organise pick-ups of boatloads of migrants from locations very close to the Libyan coast.

The NGO is challenging the seizure of its boat, saying it wants its crew to get back to saving lives as soon as possible.

Other organisations say they are happy to comply with tighter operational rules set by the Italian authorities, but they insist they will not give up their missions, saying thousands more people would have drowned but for their presence.

Some 600,000 mainly African migrants have reached Italy from Libya since the start of 2014, leaving the country's asylum facilities stretched and politicians under pressure to end the influx.

Source: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/anti-migrant-ship-shadows-ngo-rescue-vessel-libya-572751021

Italian ship arrives in Tripoli port despite threat

Al Arabiya

By Mohammed Al Araby

4 August 2017

The Libyan navy chief off staff’s media office has released a video of an Italian navy ship arriving to the port of Tripoli, while stressing that its arrival does not impede on the Libya’s sovereignty.

The Libyan Naval Command said in a statement on its Facebook page that the visit comes as part of a bilateral military cooperation agreement signed in 2008. Furthermore the statement added that it is the ‘right’ of the Libyan navy and coast guard to get technical and logistical support from their Italian counterparts.

The arrival comes after a call was made by the General Command of the Libyan National Army to bomb any vessel entering Libyan territorial waters.

General Khalifa Hafter, commander of the Libyan National Army made the call after the Italian parliament, Wednesday, accepted a request from the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord to send an Italian naval ship to the Libyan waters to intercept people smugglers.

The statement also disavowed what was attributed to the Libyan navy of giving up the nation’s sovereignty and its waters.

“The work of the navy in combating illegal immigration and saving lives has embarrassed the European side and made the claims of the naval forces and the coast guard a legitimate right. This comes with regard to benefits owed by the European side which should have been paid as a right to Libya in return for its sacrifices,” the naval command said in its statement.


Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2017/08/04/Italian-ship-arrives-in-Tripoli-port-despite-threat.html

"Libya: Italian patrol ship docks in Tripoli port in defiance of LNA foreign vessels ban": https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/libya-italian-patrol-ship-docks-tripoli-port-defiance-lna-foreign-vessels-ban/

Mediterranean rescue ship Iuventa ‘worked with Libyan traffickers’, Italy claims

The migrant rescue boat Iuventa has been seized in a Sicilian port as Italian authorities investigate the German NGO Jugend Rette for what they suspect could be aiding clandestine immigration

The Times

By Philip Willan, Rome

4 August 4 2017

Italian police planted an officer on a Save the Children rescue ship and bugged telephones and cabins on a German vessel to prove that humanitarian organisations were colluding with Libyan people smugglers.

The year-long inquiry, triggered by claims that charities were acting as a “taxi service” for illegal migrants from Africa, led to the seizure of a ship belonging to a German organisation over alleged complicity with traffickers.

Investigators said that the crew of the Iuventa avoided Italian ports and openly defied maritime authorities.

In May the ship entered harbour on the island of Lampedusa with a sign that said “F*** IMRCC” on its prow. The Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre supervises rescue ships in the central Mediterranean.

Judge Emanuele Cersosimo ordered the seizure of the boat, operated by Jugend Rettet (Youth to the Rescue), a charity based in Berlin.

Photographs and a report by the judge indicating that the Iuventa crew collaborated with people traffickers were published in Italian newspapers yesterday. Much of the evidence appeared to come from an undercover police officer working on the Vos Hestia, a search-and-rescue ship operated by Save the Children.

In June the officer witnessed a rescue operation by the Iuventa crew in which three wooden boats were lashed together and towed towards Libya, where they were set adrift and collected by traffickers.

One of the boats was seen again a week later carrying more migrants. The judge said that it was against Italian law to fail to render smugglers’ boats unusable.

The officer witnessed meetings between smugglers and crew members in the Iuventa tenders with Libyan coastguard vessels standing by and making no effort to detain or identify the smugglers as they escaped.

“The choice is only comprehensible in the light of a situation of grave collusion between single units of the coastguard and the people traffickers,” the report said.

Evidence of Libyan collusion with smugglers is embarrassing as the Italian navy prepares to begin joint operations with the Libyan coastguard in an effort to interrupt the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean. More than 95,000 refugees have made the dangerous crossing to Italy this year.

Bugs planted by investigators on the Iuventa are understood to have captured conversations in which crew members made clear their reluctance to co-operate with Italian investigators.

A Iuventa team leader named as Katrin said to a colleague: “We won’t supply any photograph in which the people steering the boats could be identified because the police might arrest them.”

Marco Minniti, the Italian interior minister who has spearheaded efforts to enlist the support of Libyan tribal leaders in halting the passage of migrants across their territory, described Jugend Rettet’s behaviour as “humanitarian extremism”.

He said the case demonstrated the need for a code of conduct drawn up by his ministry, which Jugend Rettet and four other groups had refused to sign. He warned that if they did not do so it would be difficult for them to continue.

Maurizio Gasparri, a Forza Italia senator and vocal critic of search-and-rescue charities, said that the Iuventa crew should be arrested and Jugend Rettet and other NGOs “swept out of the Mediterranean”.

Police searched the Iuventa yesterday and seized documents and computers. The boat will be transferred from Lampedusa to the Sicilian port of Trapani, where Judge Cersosimo is based.




Source:  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mediterranean-rescue-ship-worked-with-libyan-traffickers-italy-claims-b3mbpwsvh

Migrant rescue ship blocked in Lampedusa amid NGO crackdown

The Local / AFP

2 August 2017

A ship chartered by the German NGO, Jugend Rettet, was blocked overnight off the southern island of Lampedusa by the coastguard as part of a 'routine check'.

The organisation was among those which refused to sign a ‘code of conduct’ on migrant search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean imposed by the Italian government.

The ship, Iuventa, was escorted by the coastguard to the port of Lampedusa, an island that lies between Sicily and Tunisia.

Two Syrians, who had been transferred to the ship by one of the Italian military units employed in rescue operations, were taken to the island’s reception centre, Ansa reported.

Paolo Monaco, Lampedusa’s port authority chief, said the move was part of “a routine check”.

“It will not lead to any problem,” he was quoted by Ansa as saying.

“We will now control the documents of the whole crew and this morning they will already be able to leave Lampedusa if everything is in order.”

Only three of nine NGOs signed the new protocol on Monday.

Among those who refused was the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which said two sticking points prevented it from doing so.

One was the obligation for rescue vessels to operate with an Italian police official on board, and the other was the ban on moving rescued migrants from one aid vessel to another at sea, which complicated missions.

 The code, created to address the biggest migrant phenomenon in Europe since World War II, lays down 13 rules Rome 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 the lives of those attempting the perilous crossing from the shores of crisis-hit Libya to Europe.

The interior ministry said those who "refuse to agree and sign are excluded from the system of sea rescues".

Titus Molkenbur, a spokesperson for Jugend Rettet, sad on Monday that the privately-funded aid organisation “we would only sign if the new rules made our work more efficient and increased the security of our volunteers."

The new rules, which have been given a green light by Brussels, forbid NGOs from sailing into Libyan waters unless lives are at risk, or communicating with smugglers - including using lights that could attract traffickers.


Source: https://www.thelocal.it/20170802/migrant-rescue-ship-blocked-in-lampedusa-amid-ngo-crackdown