SOS Humanity had taken legal action against an Italian decree from 4 November 2022 under which one of its ships, the Humanity 1, had been ordered to leave Italian territorial waters after ensuring operations to assist the passengers it had rescued.

On the high seas, vessels "are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of their flag state" and thus, "in the absence of coordination with the authorities" of the SAR (search and rescue) zone where a rescue operation is carried out, the "flag state is the one tasked with issuing instructions to the vessel ", the Lazio regional administrative court (TAR) has ruled, according to court papers published on February 19.

With the sentence, the administrative court rejected an appeal filed in 2022 by German NGO SOS Humanity.

The organization had appealed against an interministerial decree issued on 4 November 2022 under which one of its vessels had been ordered not to remain in Italian territorial waters beyond the time necessary to ensure operations to assist people who were experiencing a medical emergency or who were in poor health on the Humanity 1.

The NGO-run vessel had previously rescued 180 migrants in areas outside the Italian SAR zone.

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The motivations of the appeal's rejection

TAR preliminarily ruled that the complaint filed by the NGO was inadmissible since it was filed after migrants had already disembarked from its vessel. The court said it was no longer possible for the organization to appeal against measures that were preventing passengers from landing after they had already done so.

The administrative court's judges, however, also ruled on merit, stating that the appeal was unfounded because the ship had decided to "head for Italy, without considering any other solution", including sailing to Malta, Tunisia, or other safe countries where it could dock.

The lack of coordination with Italian authorities or any preventive warning ensured that the "administration had qualified the ship's conduct" as a violation of the laws and rules on immigration in place in the coastal state, TAR said.

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'Italian state had no obligation'

TAR said the Italian authorities could thus coherently order a "limit on transit and a stopover in territorial waters", while preserving the "principle safeguarding the life and safety of the people on board" the NGO-run ship, "without foregoing the exercise of official powers to protect public order and security".

Lazio's regional administrative court went on to state that, "in an entirely correct manner, Italian authorities dialogued with the flag state to urge its intervention and collaboration in managing the case under examination."

This was also due to the fact that "the Italian State had no obligation, under international maritime law, to respond to the request of a place of safety" issued by the NGO-run ship. Instead, the vessel should have appealed "to the State with jurisdiction over the SAR region" in which the migrants had been rescued, in cooperation with its flag state, the court explained.