The German aid organization Sea-Watch has turned on because of their blocked rescue ship with migrants on board the European Court of Human Rights.
„We have on behalf of the crew and a rescued (…) started an urgent procedure,“ said spokesman Ruben Neugebauer on Monday evening. The „Sea-Watch 3“ had rescued 47 migrants from Libya about ten days ago and is now waiting on the Sicilian coast of things. Italy refuses to dock the ship.
„We can no longer accept that the European states are jointly breaking the law of the sea and we can not accept that sea rescue is made dependent on EU negotiations,“ said Neugebauer to the German Press Agency. More details on the proceedings before the Court should be announced on Tuesday.
The Italian Government, in turn, stated that the jurisdiction was with Holland, as the vessel sailed under the Dutch flag. They offer a „humanitarian corridor“ to bring the migrants to the Netherlands, it said in a statement. The „Sea-Watch 3“ had not picked Tunisia as a „safe haven“ after the reception of migrants, but had taken a „hundreds of miles long trip“ in the direction of Italy and thus put the people on board in danger. „The final question is: was the Sea Watch’s goal to rescue the migrants and provide them with protection in the first safe haven (Tunisia) or create an international case to attract mass media attention?“ , it was said.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was established in Strasbourg in 1959 by member states of the Council of Europe to ensure compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The EU states have not been able to agree on a distribution of boat refugees for years. Since Italy refused to rescue ships, several boats were sometimes blocked for weeks on the sea.
