Following the arrival of a record number of people on the move in Lampedusa, civil society expresses its deep concern at the security response of European states, the crisis of reception, and reaffirms its solidarity with people on the move arriving in Europe. 

Search and rescue ships are urgently needed to prevent further loss of life on the deadliest migration route in the world, yet EU member states – most prominently Italy – are actively obstructing civilian search and rescue efforts.  

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will evaluate the legitimacy of the Facilitators Package and of Article 12 of the Italian Consolidated Immigration Act with regard to its compatibility with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The complaint prepared by lawyer Francesca Cancellaro has finally been referred to the ECJ.

On Sunday 16 July, the European Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia. the EU pledges to provide an additional EUR 100 million to Tunisia to strengthen border management, search and rescue operations at sea and ‘anti-trafficking’ measures to reduce the number of arrivals from the country.

At yesterday’s hearing the court of Trapani rejected the two requests previously filed by the defence of iuventa-crew. Hence, the court blocked the possibility to bring serious contradictions between fundamental rights’ protection and Italian legislation as well as EU directives before the competent higher courts.

Today on World Refugee Day, we jointly demand full and independent investigations into the events, clear consequences for those responsible, an end to the systematic pushback practices at the European borders, and justice for the victims.

After filing a constitutional complaint in Trapani, we launched the #DecriminalizeFacilitation campaign.
Laws regulating the facilitation of movement of people only serve the interests of Fortress Europe. To protect its borders, the EU violates the fundamental rights of people on the move and those who support them. Facilitating freedom of movement is not a crime!

At the latest hearing the defence again criticised the inadequate translation of the case files and requested a referral to the European Court of Justice in order to obtain a landmark decision on this issue. The public prosecutor office took a position on the constitutional complaint previously filed by the defence.

In last Fridays recent hearing, iuventa’s defence filed a request to the Italian Constitutional Court, challenging the legal basis of the criminal proceedings. This legal action questions the Italian and European legislation on “smuggling” cases, based on which more than 1,000 people are currently detained in Italy alone.

Today, it’s been disclosed that three of the UN Special Rapporteurs, independent experts of the UN human rights Council, have called out the Italian government over the legal proceedings against the iuventa crew and the worrying context for migrant rights defenders.

We strongly condemn the ongoing fighting in Sudan, which started on 15 April 2023, and ask the leaders of the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to sit for dialogue that leads to a civilian-led government.

68 organisations issued a statement to remind once again that Tunisia is neither a safe country of origin nor a safe third country. Therefore, it cannot be considered as a place of safety for people rescued at sea.

Since the defence kept revealing further fundamental deficiencies in the overall construction of the indictment, today the question of the legality of the indictment was once again in the foreground. At today’s hearing, the court in Trapani took a position on some of these points.

Around 40 Italian and European ngos filed a joint complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Crotone Court to have an accurate investigation carried out into the responsibilities of the Italian authorities in relation to the failure to rescue the boat that sank a few hundred metres off the coast.

20 NGOs engaged in or in support of Search and Rescue in the central Mediterranean Sea write an open letter to the new Frontex Executive Director.

Today’s preliminary hearing against the 21 defendants accused of “aiding and abetting unauthorised immigration” at the court of Trapani was grounded in reality by the facts of Crotone.

Following the long and controversial discussion at the last hearing on the question of the Italian government’s application to join the trial, as they claim to be an “crime victim”, this time there was a decision.

The iuventa crew filed a criminal complaint to the Trapani Prosecutor’s Office on 12.02.2023, requesting an investigation into the abandonment and destruction of the rescue ship iuventa.

Lasting ten hours, the longest and most heated hearing in the iuventa case took place yesterday, dealing with the inadequate interpretation and the government’s request to appear as a joint plaintiff.

A new law decree, signed by the Italian President on 2 January 2023, will reduce rescue capacities at sea and thereby make the central Mediterranean, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes, even more dangerous. Read the PR of SAR ngos.

The Italian government’s willingness to criminalise search and rescue operations by any means necessary to stop them is becoming increasingly evident. What started with Minniti’s NGO law in 2017 led to the confiscation of iuventa and is now taking an escalating extreme with Meloni’s decree of 28.12.2022.

Decisive steps were taken today in the trial of the crew members of the civil rescue ship iuventa, who face up to 20 years in prison for “aiding and abetting unauthorized immigration” and whose ship has been impounded in the port of Trapani for 5 years. Both the Ministry of the Interior as well as the Prime Minister’s office have today requested to be admitted as joint plaintiffs in the trial.

After being held in the port of Trapani for five years and abandoned by the harbour master’s office, the iuventa has been plundered, largely demolished and is currently unseaworthy and in danger of sinking. In its ruling yesterday, a court confirmed the complainants’ view that this treatment was wrong and decided that extensive maintenance work must be carried out on the ship to restore it to the condition it was in before the seizure in August 2017.

At today’s hearing in the trial against the civil sea rescuers, the presence of renowned international trial observers was admitted by the court. After approval by all parties, they were allowed to attend the trial as observers for the first time.

In the major court case against crew members of the civilian sea rescue, the public prosecutor’s office refused to provide a qualified interpreter in an interrogation of a German defendant.

Trapani, November 12, 2022. In the largest court case against crew members of civilian sea rescue, since five years there is not only no sufficient evidence to justify the seizure of a rescue ship, let alone the threat of 20 years prison sentences. This criminal proceeding also lacks the basic principles of a fair trial.

5 Years after the seizure of the iuventa ship, the trial was adjourned for the second time last Saturday, 29 October 2022, again due to mistakes by the prosecution. A subsequent voluntary questioning by the police of one of the iuventa defendants had to be aborted after minutes due to insufficient interpretation. The iuventa defendants asked to exercise their right to be interrogated voluntarily by the authorities.

The judge was finally unable to bring the case any step forward. Once again, due to procedural errors on the part of the public prosecutor’s office, the proceedings against the 21 accused, who face up to 20 years in prison for “aiding and abetting unauthorised entry”, had to be interrupted.

The trial against four crew members of the IUVENTA and 17 other defendants charged with “aiding and abetting unauthorised immigration” was suspended due to procedural errors by the prosecution. The judge rejected the prosecution’s claim that the procedural errors could be ignored.

On 21.05.2022, 5 years after the most extensive and controversial investigation into
non-governmental rescue organization in the Mediterranean, 21 defendants will finally face their accusers in a preliminary hearing at the Court of Trapani.