With a sentence issued on June 26, the Civil Court Judge of Crotone, in Calabria, annulled the administrative detention ordered for the sea rescue ship Humanity 1, ruling that Italian authorities must pay the legal fees.
The administrative detention of the ship Humanity 1, operated by the German NGO SOS Humanity, was permanently canceled. This decision was made by Judge Antonio Albenzio of the Civil Court of Crotone. On June 26, he lifted the reservation on the appeal presented by the NGO after having previously suspended the provision issued by Italian authorities.
'It is not possible to consider Libya a safe place'
On March 4, Humanity 1 was subjected to 20 days of administrative detention in Crotone, where it had arrived after rescuing 77 migrants from three boats in distress in the Mediterranean Sea on March 2. The crew had ignored instructions from the Libyan Coast Guard, it was said at the time to justify the penalty.
The Humanity 1 crew at the time said they were threatened by the crew of a Libyan coast guard vessel as they sought to rescue the migrants. The individuals aboard the Libyan coast guard vessel not only tried to hamper the rescue efforts of the Humanity 1 crew, but also fired a shot into the sea, resulting in some migrants springing into the water and at least one death, a statement released by SOS Humanity on March 4 detailed.
In this week's ruling, the judge stated that despite the 2017 memorandum for managing migration flows between Italy and Libya, "at present, based on the Hamburg Convention (the 1979 international agreement on search and rescue at sea), it is not possible to consider Libya a safe place."
The judge also referenced findings by the UNHCR, which had "on several occasions, highlighted the violation of fundamental human rights by the Libyan Coast Guard during its rescue operations."
Also read: SOS Humanity: Margins to save migrants very limited after multiple NGO vessel seizures
Judge accepted appeal by SOS Humanity
These elements were deemed by the judge as "sufficient to disqualify the Libyan Coast Guard's operations, with armed personnel on board," and without "a safe place aligned to international standards" as "recognized by numerous international sources" to take the migrants back to.
According to Judge Albenzio, "the logical corollary is that the NGO is not guilty of any obstructive conduct," and, on the contrary, SOS Humanity "was the only ship to intervene to implement, according to international standards, the obligation of rescuing migrants at sea."
By canceling the administrative detention, the judge accepted the appeal by SOS Humanity and sentenced the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Interior, the Prefecture of Crotone, the Ministry of Finance, and the Finance Guard of the operational naval section of Crotone, who were represented by the State Attorney's Office of Catanzaro, to refund the NGO a total of 14,000 euros for its legal expenses.