Court Orders Italy to Pay Migrant Rescue NGO for High Profile 2019 Run-In

An Italian court has ordered the government to pay $89,000 in compensation to the migrant rescue NGO Sea-Watch for a 2019 run-in that ended in the detention of the group's vessel, Sea-Watch 3. The encounter was perhaps the most high-profile confrontation between humanitarian rescue organizations and the administration of then-interior minister Matteo Salvini, the architect of the Italian right's effort to close off port access for migrant arrivals.

The incident started in mid-June 2019, when Sea-Watch 3 picked up a group of distressed migrants off Libya and got under way for Lampedusa, the nearest safe port of disembarkation. Salvini had ordered the port closed to the vessel's arrival, and law enforcement boats attempted to intercede as Sea Watch 3 entered the harbor. The vessel disregarded instructions to stay out of the port, and on entering it made contact with a Guardia di Finanza patrol boat, resulting in no injuries. Sea Watch 3's captain, Carola Rackete, was criminally charged for this maneuver, and the vessel was detained until December 2019. Rackete's case was ultimately dismissed, but the legal wrangling continued for years.

This week, after a long-running civil trial in Palermo, the court ruled that the Italian state owes Sea Watch $89,000 in expense reimbursement for the "unlawful" 2019 detention of the vessel. The ruling drew an angry reaction from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said that the ruling left her "literally speechless," and accused the courts of handing down politicized decisions. She pledged to continue efforts to prevent migrant arrivals.

The Palermo court pushed back in public commentary. "Denigrating judges because of a decision you don't agree with has nothing to do with legitimate criticism," Court of Palermo president Piergiorgio Morosini told local outlet La Sicilia.

On the same day, another court in Catania ordered the release of Sea Watch's latest vessel, Sea-Watch 5, from ongoing detention. The Sea-Watch 5 had allegedly failed to communicate its position to authorities in Libya, as is required under current Italian law; Libyan first responders have opened fire on NGO rescue vessels in the past, and have a tense relationship with the humanitarian-nonprofit community.