The migrant search-and-rescue ship run by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms is set to remain under sequester at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, a judge in Catania ruled on Tuesday. The vessel was sequestered after landing in Pozzallo on March 18, having saved 218 migrants in the southern Mediterranean.

The preliminary investigations judge of Catania, Nunzio Sarpietro, upheld the prosecutors' request for the ship to remain confiscated. However, he said he did not have the authority to make any further decisions, having rejected allegations of criminal association but saying there was a possible case for aiding illegal migration. The case documents will thus be transferred to Ragusa prosecutors.

From a rescue in Libyan waters to Malta and Italy

On March 14, the Open Arms ship rescued 218 migrants but the Libyan Coast Guard argued that the operation had been conducted in an area under their control, demanding that the migrants be handed over to them. The NGO refused even after weapons were pointed at them, they said. The Libyan Coast Guard instead claims that the Spanish NGO had displayed ''defiant behavior'' and that it had not complied with regulations. The Italian Coast Guard underscored that the coordination had been ''taken over by the Libyan Coast Guard'' and that the NGO knew this.

Among the migrants were children and people suffering from ill health. Malta responded to a call for help and picked up a dehydrated three-month-old infant suffering from scabies along with its mother.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said that ''despite proximity to the island of Malta, the ship continued sailing towards the Italian coast while awaiting instructions from the Spanish authorities''.

According to the NGO Code of Conduct, requested by the Italian government and signed by Proactiva, the nation under whose flag the ship was sailing, Spain, should have asked Italy to allow the ship to dock. However, the ship did not send any request to the Spanish authorities and continued to sail north.

Once at the edge of the territorial waters, it received the authorization to head towards Pozzallo, where it docked on March 17 and was sequestered the following day.

Libyan camp conditions not justification enough, judge finds

In the eyes of the Catania preliminary investigative judge, "the fact that refugee camps in Libya are not a shining example of respect for human rights does not automatically mean that NGOs can work autonomously and on their own behalf," ignoring agreements with and the interests of the countries affected by migration, and violating the Code of Conduct signed by several NGOs with the Italian authorities. "The circumstance that Malta is not willing to accept migrants," the judge ruled, "has not been shown."

'Criminalization of NGOs campaign' cuts ships from 11 to 1

The founder of Proactiva Open Arms, Oscar Camps, said before the European Parliament on Tuesday that "since 2016 there has been an ongoing campaign of persecution and criminalization of NGOs working in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of 2016, there were 11 ships that operated in the central corridor of the Mediterranean, in 2017 this number fell to 9 and now, in 2018, there is only one."

"It was impossible," he added, "to hand the migrants over to the Libyans, since they did not want to get on their boats," while those in charge of the ship spoke to the Libyans for two and half hours before they decided to leave.

Alessandro Gamberini, a lawyer from Proactiva Open Arms' defense team, praised the fact that the criminal association charges had been dropped and announced that he would ask the Ragusa prosecutor's office for the release of the ship.