Sea-Watch 3: Refugee ship defies Italy's far-right leader Matteo Salvini by taking rescued migrants to port

The boat, with 42 rescued migrants aboard, had been in limbo for two weeks, stuck in the Mediterranean and closed off from Europe. No country had stepped forward to accept the vessel. And Italy had pointedly ordered the boat not to enter its territory, citing a forceful new law.

But on Wednesday, the German humanitarian group operating the boat said it had run out of options. The captain turned the boat towards the Italian island of Lampedusa and headed to port.

"I know what I'm risking," the captain, Carola Rackete, said on Twitter, "but the 42 survivors I have on board are exhausted. I'm taking them to safety."

As of early evening, the Sea-Watch 3 had stopped just outside of an Italian harbour, needing a ferry to depart before it could get closer. Police had lined up at the port, according to Italian media, which also speculated that migrants could be transferred on coastguard motorboats and brought ashore.

Italy's hard-line anti-migration interior minister Matteo Salvini vowed fines, arrests and a boat seizure - and said other European countries should take responsibility for the migrants.

"We will use every democratic means to stop this mockery of law," Mr Salvini said. "Italy cannot be the landing spot for anyone deciding to unload human beings.”

The Sea-Watch 3 case on Wednesday marked the clearest attempt of a rescue vessel to defy a nation's orders.

Until a year ago, Italy had been the de facto landing spot for migrants crossing the Mediterranean - who typically depart Libya in rickety smugglers' boats and require rescue from either commercial boats, charity ships or coast guard vessels.

But Italy grew frustrated with what it described as a disproportionate burden. And, under Mr Salvini, it closed its ports to migrant rescue vessels last June. That closure gained more legal muscle this month, when the country adopted a decree pledging fines of up to 50,000 euros (£44,795) for boat captains and owners who come to Italy without authorisation. The decree was criticised by the United Nations, which called sea rescue a "humanitarian imperative."

The emerging standoff on Wednesday reflects Europe's struggle to contend with migration across the Mediterranean, even as that flow has greatly diminished from the historic heights in 2015 and 2016.

Over the past year, boats that have rescued migrants have regularly found themselves stranded at sea as European countries arm-wrestle over who holds responsibility.

Sometimes, European Union countries have agreed on a way to divvy up the migrants. But there have also been consequences to the waiting, with accounts of dangerous food and water shortages, and deteriorating health of those on board.

In one instance, a migrant tried to commit suicide by jumping overboard. In another instance, in March, several migrants fearful of returning to Libya overtook their rescue boat by force and directed it towards Malta.

EU leaders last summer suggested the creation of centres in Europe - or even in Africa - where migrants could be screened for asylum. But no nation has been willing to host such centres.

A European Commission spokesperson said in a statement that the bloc was working with members to "agree on temporary arrangements following disembarkation in the EU of persons rescued at sea."

"Situations such as the ongoing incident with Sea-Watch 3 shows that predictable and sustainable solutions are urgently needed in the Mediterranean for all those involved," the spokesperson said.

In one sense, Europe has succeeded in its migration goals, cutting the flow to the continent by bolstering the Libyan coastguard, which intercepts migrant dinghies and returns people to Libya. But migrants in Libya are vulnerable to rape, torture, slavery and detention, according to documentation from the UN and from aid groups.

Migration experts have said it is a violation of international maritime convention to return rescued migrants to an unsafe port. The Council of Europe, a human rights body, said that the decision to outsource border control has come at a "terrible human cost."

While some EU countries have been open to accepting refugees, others such as Hungary and Poland have closed their doors entirely, making it difficult for Europe to share the burden of new arrivals.

"Nobody would care about disembarkation in their country if they were absolutely assured that almost all of those people would be relocated [elsewhere]," said Judith Sunderland, associate director for the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch.

Mr Salvini said on Wednesday that the responsibility for accepting the Sea-Watch migrants fell to Germany, where the NGO is headquartered, and to Netherlands, because the vessel was flying a Dutch flag. He suggested that Italy in the future might refrain from registering and identifying new arrivals - a step that would undermine European rules requiring migrants to go through the asylum process in the country where they first arrive.

"They will be free to go wherever they want," Mr Salvini said.

After making its rescues on 12 June, the Sea-Watch 3 was instructed by Libya to return the migrants to Tripoli, the NGO's spokesperson, Ruben Neugebauer, said in a telephone interview. But the group said such an option was unsafe.

Instead, it headed towards the boundary of Italian waters, zig-zagging in international waters off the island of Lampedusa. On 13 June, the Sea-Watch received an email from the Italian government ordering the boat not to enter the country's territorial waters. Two days later, with the Sea-Watch 3 still having nowhere to go, Italian authorities motored into international waters, boarded the boat in the middle of the night, and told the captain to sign paperwork acknowledging the Italian orders.

"It was highly unusual," the Sea Watch 3's captain, Carola Rackete, wrote in an interview conducted via WhatsApp last week.

Ms Rackete answered questions from The Post over several days, and said she felt "outraged and also saddened that a country in central Europe has come to this state of nationalism where protecting their borders is valued more than human lives."

She said she was trying to avoid "criminalisation," and she worried that if the boat headed towards Italy without authorisation, it would be impounded - preventing it from carrying out future rescue missions.

But, she wrote on 21 June, "if people deteriorate in terms of their psychological or physical health we would break the law and go to port immediately."

The Washington Post