Humanitarian rescue organizations are accusing a supply ship, the Vos Triton, of participating in what they call an "illegal pushback" to Libya, in which migrants rescued from a drifting boat were handed over to the Libyan coast guard.
47 people were arrested in Gibraltar and Spain during the course of a police operation to break up a smuggling ring operating between Morocco, the British territory of Gibraltar and Spain.
The operators of the migrant search and rescue vessel "Aquarius," which had to discontinue its operations in early December 2018 after losing its flag registration, are hoping to find another ship to continue their work in the Mediterranean.
Gibraltar has decided to remove its flag from the migrant rescue ship Aquarius, in a measure that the NGO SOS Mediterranee called a "political maneuver" aimed at hindering the ship's search and rescue operations.