Two sea rescue ships have been detained in Italy under a new national law which conflicts with international legal obligations. The detention comes as several NGOs rescued over 100 people in the Mediterranean sea last week.
The Life Support rescue vessel, run by the Emergency NGO, reached the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara with 55 migrants on board in the morning of April 19. They had been rescued off the Libyan coast four days earlier.
After three rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean, 161 migrants disembarked from the Life Support in Ortona, central Italy, this week. The NGO operating the ship criticized Italy's recent policy of assigning ports further north in the country for disembarkation, and shared testimonies from rescued migrants.