In an Italy led by a right-wing and far-right government which has continued to target them, sea rescue non-governmental organizations (NGOs) won a rare victory on Friday April 19. A dismissal of the case was pronounced at the court of Trapani (Sicily) in a sprawling case with multiple twists and turns since 2017, between political manipulation and troubled police intrigues.
The three NGOs Jugend Rettet, Save the Children, Médecins sans frontières and twenty-one of their members were suspected of having engaged in actions favoring illegal immigration to Italy. They were notably accused of having brought on board, during rescue operations carried out in 2016 and 2017, people who were not in a situation of danger at sea and of having coordinated with Libyan traffickers to transship groups of migrants.
The accusations launched throughout the affair thus resonated with the discourse according to which NGOs constitute a factor in attracting flows of migrants in the central Mediterranean, which they denounce as an attempt to criminalize rescue at sea by the authorities. In Trapani, ten of the accused were acquitted, the judge following the prosecutors’ request made in February. The remaining eleven are expected to appear before other courts, which the defense says should side with Friday’s decision.
“The decision of the Trapani court, the best that could have been hoped for, is a major political signal because the case has always been used by those who claim with now obsolete arguments that NGOs participate in human trafficking”, welcomes Francesca Cancellaro, lawyer for the members of the crew of IuventaJugend Retter’s boat, sequestered in the port of Trapani for seven years. “This decision will have value for all future trials and opens prospects for decriminalization of NGOs. We have won the defense, now we can go on the attack”she continues.
Control of NGO actions
At the origin of the affair is the murky role of two former police officers, hired as private security agents on board the Your Hestia, the ship used by the NGO Save the Children in the central Mediterranean in 2016. After participating in rescue missions, they spoke to the Italian domestic intelligence services as well as political leaders including the future Minister of Defense. far-right interior Matteo Salvini (League) by accusing NGOs of working with Libyan traffickers. The judicial investigation then takes place in a particular context, corresponding to the moment when the Italian authorities, exposed to an intensification of migratory flows from 2015, modified their relations with NGOs.
You have 48.9% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.