Italy demands Sea-Eye to follow the instructions of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard

On Monday afternoon, the captain of the SEA-EYE 4 was informed that the rescue ship will again be punished with an administrative detention of 20 days and a fine of around 3,000 euros. Specifically, the Italian coast guard accuses the crew of the ship of not following the instructions of the so-called Libyan coast guard. 

In fact, the so-called Libyan coast guard, under the threat of violence, requested the SEA-EYE 4 in international waters to change course and leave the sea area in a northerly direction. The so-called Libyan Coast Guard then harassed an inflatable boat carrying around 50 persons to such an extent that people panicked and fell into the water.

Sea-Eye released video footage of the incident that clearly shows the Libyans performing dangerous manoeuvres in the immediate vicinity of the inflatable boat.

 “The captain of the Libyan coast guard vessel dangerously pursued and harassed the rubber boat while his crew simultaneously stood by the railing smoking cigarettes and filming on their mobile phones. This has nothing whatsoever to do with sea rescue,” says Jan Ribbeck, head of mission of Sea-Eye e.V.

Due to the reckless and aggressive behaviour of the so-called Libyan coast guard, at least four people lost their lives.

 “If the SEA-EYE 4 had left the sea area, even more people would have died and no one would have known about this tragedy,” Ribbeck continues.

Sea-Eye asked the expert Prof. Dr. Valentin Schatz, Junior Professor for Public Law and European Law at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, for a legal evaluation.

“The detention order and the fine have no basis in international law and violate the rights of the Federal Republic of Germany as the flag state of the SEA-EYE 4, which are guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). According to UNCLOS, it is the sole responsibility of the flag state to prescribe and enforce rules concerning rescue at sea applicable to its ships in international waters. The flag state’s exclusive competence in this respect under international law is not affected by the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention), to which Italy itself refers in its detention order, but rather confirms it. The SAR Convention does not transfer any additional jurisdiction to coastal states on the basis of which they could lawfully regulate and sanction the behaviour of foreign ships in international waters. Germany, the flag state of SEA-EYE 4, has enacted the Ordinance on Maritime Safety (SeeFSichV) to implement and enforce the SAR Convention with respect to German ships. Suspected unlawful behaviour can be reported to the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. By exercising jurisdiction that under international law belongs exclusively to Germany as the flag state, the Italian authorities are acting in violation of UNCLOS. This should also be clear to the Italian government as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg has already found a violation of the same rules by Italy in a similar, although perhaps even less clear, case in 2019 (The M/V “Norstar” Case (Panama v. Italy), Ruling of 10 April 2019, para. 222),” Schatz said.

Sea-Eye will also appeal the third detention of the rescue ship in 2023. In addition, the sea rescue organisation will seek legal review of whether the delays in the medical evacuation of a pregnant woman rescued by the SEA-EYE 4 could be justiciable. The head of mission on board had asked for several hours on Friday for the pregnant woman to be evacuated because she was in a life-threatening condition. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Rome then referred to Libya’s area of responsibility and refused to coordinate the evacuation. However, Libya did not respond to a request from SEA-EYE 4. The Rome MRCC eventually instructed the SEA-EYE 4 to head for Lampedusa. 

“The journey took another eight hours. If a crew member had been affected himself, surely they would not have demanded that the affected person be evacuated to Tripoli or remain on the ship for eight more hours. This is where a distinction is made that needs to be named for what it is: racism,” Isler said. Italian journalists reported that the woman lost her unborn child. “Immediate action by the Italian authorities might have led to a different outcome,” Isler continues.

Four dead and three in acute danger of death after rescue operation

On Friday evening, a pregnant woman on board the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 is fighting for her life. The head of mission has already asked the Italian Maritime Rescue Centre several times for an urgent medical evacuation. Each time, however, Italy referred to the Libyan Maritime Distress Control Centre and Italy’s telemedicine service.

The Libyan sea rescue coordination centre did not respond to the request for help even after several hours. The Italian telemedical service contacted came to the conclusion that a medical evacuation was necessary. However, the Italian emergency control centre in Rome continued to deny any responsibility and again referred to Libya.

In addition to the pregnant woman fighting for her life on board, two other people had fallen into the water during the rescue operation and were brought on board the rescue ship by the Sea-Eye crew. The persons had almost drowned, which means that there was already a lot of water in their lungs. The patients were immediately treated with pure oxygen. Among them is one pregnant women. The heart beat of her unborn child is no longer detectable, which has created a life-threatening situation for the mother and child.

“Italy is forcing us to deal with Libya, a failed state, instead of sending aid itself. A helicopter could reach the pregnant woman in acute danger of her life in less than an hour. Instead, Italy presents itself as a state that respects neither the life of a pregnant woman nor that of an unborn child. This is a medical, ethical and humanitarian scandal that should be brought before every court in the world,” said Jan Ribbeck, director of mission at Sea-Eye e. V..

Around 8 p.m., Italy finally instructed the SEA-EYE 4 to sail to Lampedusa itself to carry out medical evacuations.

“Instead of sending help themselves, Italy has been manoeuvring for hours about whether to send medical evacuations for people in acute danger of their lives. Finally, Italy is still forcing the survivors on an eight-hour crossing to Lampedusa. We demand that Italy immediately take all measures to protect the life of the pregnant woman on board the SEA-EYE 4 and send a helicopter for medical evacuation as soon as possible,” said Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e. V..

Italy also instructed the SEA-EYE 4 to proceed to the port of Vibo Valentia after the medical evacuation in Lampedusa to disembark the remaining people rescued.

Course of the rescue operation

On Friday morning, AlarmPhone reported a maritime emergency to the crew of the SEA-EYE 4, which the rescue ship reached a short time later. The so-called Libyan Coast Guard was already on site and the Sea-Eye crew documented that there were people in the water.

The so-called Libyan Coast Guard instructed the SEA-EYE 4 by radio to move away from the scene or they would be attacked. While the so-called Libyan Coast Guard was trying to get people out of the water, the rubber boat detached from the vessel. The people fled from the violent militia. During the escape attempt, some people fell into the water, whereupon the Sea-Eye crew deployed rescue equipment and a lifeboat. The crew managed to bring all the people on board.

However, three people were unconscious and near death. The crew also found four bodies in the rubber boat. Furthermore, people from the rubber boat are missing and it is not clear whether they were brought back by the so-called Libyan coast guard or drowned during their operation.

Sea-Eye criticizes fake debate on sea rescue in the German Bundestag

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the crew of the rescue vessel SEA-EYE 4 rescued 51 people from a rubber boat in the central Mediterranean. The emergency at sea had been reported to the crew by Frontex. There are now 51 refugees on board the SEA-EYE 4, including 38 men, 12 women and a baby. 12 of the young people are unaccompanied minors.

Italy has assigned Brindisi as the port of disembarkation for the SEA-EYE 4. This was 509 nautical miles away at the time of the assignment. A port in Sicily would have been much quicker for the exhausted people to reach.

Barbara Held, the doctor on board by our partner German Doctors, reports on the state of health of the rescued people: “We treated some burns caused by the corrosive mixture of salt water and petrol, and many headaches and body aches. The people had spent two days on the small boat without being able to move and were very exhausted. I was saddened by the reports of torture in the Libyan prisons, the orphans who were on the move all alone and the families who had been torn apart. At least here, in addition to medical care, we can give them respect, hope and safety.”

While the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 rescued people for the first time with substantial support from the German government and is bringing them to safety in this very hour, the German Bundestag is debating the issue of sea rescues in the Mediterranean.

“There are members of the Bundestag who cannot stand the fact that people are being saved from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea with concrete, governmental aid from Germany. The democratic parties of this country must not surrender to this fake debate and never allow humanitarian work in Germany to be criminalised,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V..

On Thursday, 19 October, the Bundestag debated for the first time a motion of the AfD, which also dealt with the financial support of sea rescues in the Bundestag.

“Without the support of the Federal Government, many rescue missions will not take place next year. This would make fleeing across the Mediterranean even more dangerous.The Bundestag should therefore seriously discuss how other EU member states can be encouraged to also support sea rescue instead of giving in to the AfD and letting people drown. Human dignity must not be relativised in migration policy,” Isler continues.

Legal action against Italian Ministry of Transport at the Civil Court of Chieti

The German sea rescue organization Sea-Eye filed a lawsuit on June 30 at the Civil Court of Chieti against the twenty-day administrative detention of the SEA-EYE 4 in Ortona and the associated fine of €3,333.

After the rescue of 49 lives from two different distress calls, the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 was detained by the Italian authorities for 20 days on 02.06.2023. The reason for the detention was a violation of an Italian law that came into force on 24.02.2023. Thus, after the first rescue with 17 rescued persons, the SEA-EYE 4 should have proceeded immediately to Ortona. Due to further distress calls, the ship had to interrupt its approach to Ortona to search for people in distress at sea. The crew of the ship thus saved 32 more lives and still reached the port of Ortona in time.

Italian authorities already used the new law to detain several German rescue vessels after the ships either conducted multiple rescues or called at closer, Italian ports instead of making multi-day approaches to distant seaports. The Sea-Eye organization formally requested assistance from the German Foreign Office on June 04, 2023, because of the SEA-EYE 4’s detention on June 02, 2023. However, an intervention by the German authorities remained unsuccessful. Rome only informed the Foreign Office that the “intervention was noted” wrote a Foreign Office contact person to the Sea-Eye sea rescue organization.

“One must realize that this law was explicitly written for sea rescue organizations. It contains penalties that escalate from violation to violation and could bring civilian sea rescue to a complete standstill,” said Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye e. V.

The SEA-EYE 4 was unable to carry out its third mission in 2023 as planned due to the detention. The ship is now being prepared for its next mission in Burriana, Spain. If the SEA-EYE 4 is detained a second time for violating the new law, the organization faces a fine of up to €50,000 and a detention of up to six months.

“In case of further distress calls, we are thus forced into a moral dilemma. If we carry out a second rescue, we risk the detention of the vessel. If we leave people to die for any reason, we act just like the state actors themselves. However, Sea-Eye will leave no one to die,” Isler continues.

Once again it was reported that a boat with up to 400 refugees on board has sunk off the Greek coast. So far 78 people have been recovered dead and 104 rescued. The worst must be assumed for the remaining people.

According to media reports, the maritime emergency had already been found the day before by a Frontex aircraft. Nevertheless, the help for dozens of people came much too late. Once again it shows that Frontex is supposed to stop people seeking protection at the EU’s external border and is not there to protect human lives.

These people, who fled from the civil war country Libya, drowned at a time when EU is massively strengthening its isolation and Italy is detaining three rescue ships, including the SEA-EYE 4. For years, Sea-Eye has been demanding that the human right to life and the right to asylum be respected. For this, it is indispensable that safe escape routes are finally established.