A court in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, on Wednesday annulled the 60-day administrative seizure of the Sea-Eye 4 ship by the Italian authorities earlier this year. The ship was impounded after a rescue in the Libyan Search and Rescue (SAR) zone – but in international waters – on March 7.

The rescue involved 84 migrants, including several children, whose boat had got into difficulty after departing from Libya. A dispute later ensued between the authorities and the crew of the rescue ship, with Italian authorities accusing the crew of not following the orders of the Libyan authorities, who were responsible for coordinating rescues in that zone.

The crew argued during court hearings that they had not only repeatedly contacted the Libyan authorities, providing copies of emails as evidence, but they had also been in touch with the Italian and Maltese authorities to try to establish whether they could conduct the rescue.

Audio file submitted as evidence

They also provided an audio file of a conversation between the captain of Sea-Eye 4 and the Libyan coast guard in which the captain can be heard confirming: "[We] will follow your [the Libyan coast guard] instructions."

The Libyan coast guard can be heard saying, "take the route 00 and leave this area," and later, "Sea-Eye, here is the Libyan coast guard. OK, thank you for your collaboration."

Also read: NGOs condemn vessel seizures, saying it limits rescue operations

The judge on Wednesday noted that no objections to the actions of Sea-Eye had been raised by the Libyan coast guard at the time of the rescue.

Nevertheless, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi ordered the seizure of the vessel under the remit of a 2023 decree prohibiting non-government organizations from carrying out several rescues in succession without returning to port first for disembarkation.

The so-called Piantedosi decree was passed to try to regulate how ships operated in the Mediterranean. According to the Italian legal organization ASGI (Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration), the decree had the practical effect of hindering their rescue activities.

Sea-Eye: 'A meaningful victory'

In Wednesday's ruling, the judge upheld Sea-Eye’s complaint that the administrative stop placed on its boat in March was "illegitimate and invalid." The court then proceeded to annul the order of administrative seizure.

The court found that Sea-Eye 4 had not refused to follow the instructions of the Libyan coast guard and that the authorities had "failed to demonstrate that their accusations were valid."

The judge then ordered the Italian authorities to pay costs of 10,860 euros as compensation, as well as the costs of bringing the court case.

Also read: Italy, rescues, disembarkations and deaths in the central Mediterranean

In a press statement, Gorden Isler, the director of Sea-Eye, called the judgment "a meaningful victory for us, and for all other sea rescue organizations." He added that it showed that the detention of civil rescue ships is "an abuse of state power."

The Sea-Eye 4 sails under a German flag. Isler said that in detaining a German-flagged ship, Italy’s government was "disregarding the rights of our flag state" and "illegally detaining German rescue ships."

Isler concluded that he hoped the court judgment would prompt the authorities to call for an end to the detention and seizure of rescue ships in Italy.

According to Sea-Eye, the 60-day seizure of the boat was the longest administrative block imposed on any private rescue ship.

Between June 2023 and June 2024, Sea-Eye 4 was under administrative stops for 120 days in total, according to a press release from the group.

Further court cases pending

Sea-Eye said it has five other outstanding cases going through the courts in Italy. The next one is due to be heard on June 20 and relates to an administrative stop placed on the ship Alan Kurdi four years ago. The Alan Kurdi was operated by Sea-Eye between 2018 and 2021. According to Sea-Eye, during that time, the ship’s crew was able to save 927 people in total.

On June 3, Sea-Eye posted that 51 rescued migrants had left the Sea-Eye 4 ship in Genoa. The migrants were rescued on the night of May 31 after Sea-Eye had received an emergency call from the organization Alarm Phone, which monitors migrant journeys towards Europe.

A doctor on board Sea-Eye, Daniela Klein from the organization German Doctors, confirmed that everyone who was rescued was in a "physically stable state and relatively good condition."

Sea-Eye pointed out on X at the time of the rescue that the port of Genoa was "600 miles away," and that the choice of that port was another demonstration that the "Italian authorities want to try and keep us away from the rescue zone for as long as possible."