The privately operated migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking has been placed under administrative detention in the southern port city of Bari in Italy. Authorities say that this is due its alleged failure to take the direct route there as assigned by Italian authorities. The Ocean Viking had veered off its course in an attempt to carry out another rescue operation -- in violation of Italian law.
The Ocean Viking, which is operated by Italian-French-German-Swiss charity SOS Mediterranee, was placed under administrative detention on January 1 -- two days after disembarking 244 people rescued in the Libyan search and rescue zone in the Mediterranean.
Under Italian legislation introduced last year, migrant rescue vessels can only carry out one rescue operation at a time and need to subsequently proceed directly to the port assigned to them by Italian authorities.
However, the Ocean Viking is accused of failing to comply with these instructions: "We assume that our alleged failure to comply consisted of a small change of course, which occurred after we received a report of a case of distress with at least 70 shipwrecked people just 15 nautical miles away," SOS Mediterranee explained in a statement.
That rescue was not carried out in the end anyway, as "the updated position of the vessel in distress showed a while later that the boat in danger was 60 nautical miles further north. At that point, since it was no longer able to offer assistance, the Ocean Viking immediately resumed its route towards the port of Bari, which it reached without delay."
Guilty as charged - and proud
"If following maritime law is a crime, then we are guilty," said Anita, a coordinator of search and rescue on board the Ocean Viking, stressing that sea vessels have obligations under international conventions to rescue people at sea.
Anita added that the Ocean Viking is now having to "pay for this short deviation with the second detention (of the vessel) in two months."
"Punishing civil organizations for carrying out rescues that European states are unable to do in the Central Mediterranean is an unacceptable criminalization of humanitarian assistance," the NGO concluded in its statement.