Sea-Eye4 detention longest of all civilian rescue ships

Sea-Eye 4 detention by the italian authorities has been described as the longest any civilian rescue ships has been detained.

Seebrüecke International made the claim while speaking on lifting of Humanity 1’s detention by the court.

It said: “The #Humanity1 was detained by Italy for 20 days on March 4th after a mission in which 77 people were rescued. The reason given: The crew had ignored instructions from the Libyan authorities and thus endangered human lives. The NGO @soshumanity_en took legal action against this.

“On 18 March, the unlawful detention of the Humanity 1 was lifted. The decision in favour of Humanity 1 was based on the “obvious illegality of the regulation” on the basis of which the detention was carried out in the first place.”

This decision , it said has now been confirmed by the civil court in Crotone.

“The court also categorised the activities of the so-called Libyan Rescue Coordination Centre and the so-called Libyan Coast Guard not as search and rescue operations, but as illegal pullbacks to a country that is not a port of safety.”

Continuing, he said: “The Sea-Eye 4 is currently still detained and has been detained for a total of 60 days. This is the longest detention of a civilian rescue ship since the Piantedosi law was introduced.

“This further court decision once again emphasises what we have been saying for a long time: the Piantedosi Act is unlawful and must be abolished! We demand an end to the blocking of civilian rescue ships and the immediate release of the detained ships! #FreeTheShips #FreeTheFleet.”