The NGO’s boat was able to save around 230 people, including a woman and her child, and is heading towards Genoa, after transferring some of them to an Italian coastguard vessel.
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“Emergency state” in the Mediterranean Sea. The German NGO Sea-Eye announced on Tuesday, July 9, that it had rescued migrant boats five times in 24 hours. “This shows the state of emergency that currently prevails in the Mediterranean and how important it is that we are there to save lives,” the NGO said in a statement. Sea-Eye said it had been alerted by the migrant helpline Alarm Phone, but did not specify whether it had obtained permission from Italian authorities to carry out the rescues, without which it risks having its vessel seized.
THE Sea-Eye 4 responded to distress calls with two other rescue ships between Sunday and Monday, saving some 230 people, including a mother and her baby, it said. After transferring some of them to an Italian coastguard ship, it was carrying about 170 people to the designated port of Genoa in northern Italy on Tuesday, which is “about 600 nautical miles.”
Since coming to power in October 2022, the coalition of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sought to stem the arrival of migrant boats in Italy from North Africa. “This policy could have fatal consequences for people seeking protection”the Sea-Eye president lamented. Italian law requires NGOs to go “without delay” to a port immediately after a rescue is completed, a policy that prevents them from carrying out several in a row. But Italian courts have overturned several such decisions. And the NGOs believe that this violates maritime law, which requires any vessel to come to the aid of a boat in distress.
