Two courts in Sicily have ruled in favor of German humanitarian NGO Sea-Watch, which operates sea rescue missions in the central Mediterranean. The rulings delivered successive legal decisions against Italian government actions that had ended up restricting the organization's maritime rescue operations. 

A civil court in Palermo, southern Italy, yesterday ordered the Italian state to pay 76,000 euros to Sea-Watch as compensation for what it said was the unlawful detention of its rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3 in 2019. The compensation is intended to cover documented costs, including port fees, fuel, and the legal expenses incurred.

Italian media reported that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the decision left her "speechless" and slammed the judiciary for what she described as "sabotaging" the fight against irregular migration and undermining the rule of law.

In response, the president of the court in Palermo, Piergiorgio Morosini, said that the ruling was made after a thorough investigation based on evidence and a cross–examination of the parties involved.  

"Denigrating judges because of a decision you don't agree with has nothing to do with legitimate criticism," Morosini said, according to reports in local Italian newspaper La Sicilia. 

In a statement, Sea-Watch welcomed the decision and said that it is now studying how the financial compensation can be "used as effectively as possible" to counter policies that restrict humanitarian aid and maritime rescue. 

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Back-to-back court decisions

The court ruling can be traced back to June 2019, when Sea-Watch 3, under the command of German captain Carola Rackete, defied an Italian government ban and sailed for Lampedusa to disembark 42 rescued migrants who had been stranded at sea. Rackete was arrested and later released. The charges against her were eventually dropped on the grounds that she was fulfilling a duty to rescue people in distress at sea.  

Sea-Watch and its supporters subsequently challenged the administrative detention of the vessel, arguing that the state’s actions violated both Italian and international law governing rescue at sea. 

Just hours after the Palermo ruling ordered financial compensation to Sea-Watch, another court in Sicily delivered a second win for the aid organization. A judge in Catania dissolved a 15-day detention order and related fine imposed on the Sea-Watch 5, allowing it to return to operations in the Mediterranean. The vessel had been detained after rescuing 18 people in late January and was accused of allegedly failing to communicate its position to Libyan authorities as required under Italian migration rules.  

"We hope that this ruling will also serve as a lesson to the current government. What failed in 2019 will also fail in 2026 – Italy’s functioning, democratic justice system will see to that," Bana Mahmood, press spokesperson for Sea-Watch said in a statement. 

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Italy's controversial decree on detaining rescue ships 

Both cases are rooted in a broader dispute over Italian migration policy, particularly a 2023 decree that tightened restrictions on NGO rescue operations and empowered authorities to detain humanitarian vessels and impose fines for non-compliance with provisions that included limiting rescue operations to only one before sailing to an Italian port of disembarkation.

"The decree will reduce rescue capacities at sea and thereby make the central Mediterranean, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes, even more dangerous. The decree ostensibly targets SAR NGOs, but the real price will be paid by people fleeing across the central Mediterranean and finding themselves in situations of distress," said aid agency Human Rights at Sea in a statement in reaction to the passage of the decree.

Human Rights at Sea also criticized European Union Member States for repeatedly obstructing civilian search and rescue activities through defamation, administrative harassment, including what they say is the criminalization of NGOs and activists.   

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Multiple courts overturn NGO ship detentions

The Justice Fleet, an alliance of civilian rescue organizations operating in the Mediterranean, has repeatedly criticized Italian detention orders as punitive and incompatible with international maritime obligations.

In a series of rulings highlighted by the Justice Fleet, Italian civil courts have repeatedly overturned the detention of NGO rescue vessels, raising serious doubts about the legality of measures imposed under the government’s migration policies.

"They break the law. We win in court," Justice Fleet declared on its website, listing mutliple cases where Italian courts overturned rulings to detain rescue ships.

The cases Justice Fleet cited include a decision on February 7, 2025, where the Civil Court of Rome declared the detention of Sea-Watch 5 in Civitavecchia for 20 days and a fine of up to 10,000 euros as unlawful.

In a similar decision, on August 4, 2025, another Italian court lifted the 18-day detention of the rescue ship Aurora, stressing that the captain’s actions aligned with the Italian Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, and international maritime law.

Later, on October 8, 2025, the Civil Court of Trapani annulled the detention of Mediterranea, criticizing the disproportionate fine and recognizing that the crew's decision to head to a closer port was driven solely by humanitarian considerations to protect rescued people.

"The Italian government is attempting to criminalize NGO ships and hinder their operations. This is done through fines and detentions after the disembarkation of rescued persons. Court rulings following appeals by NGOs against these sanctions regularly overturn the measures for various reasons," declared Justice Fleet.

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