(CN) — A court in Sicily on Friday shot down a German charity's efforts to challenge the constitutionality of an Italian law used to criminalize citizen groups that rescue migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
A Trapani tribunal judge ruled against Iuventa, a German humanitarian ship with crew members facing up to 20 years in prison for bringing aboard migrants in distress in the Mediterranean Sea and helping them reach Italian ports between August 2016 and August 2017, when the boat was impounded by Italian authorities.
The 108-foot-long Iuventa has been held since then in Trapani, a port city on the western coast of Sicily, and its crew face up to 20 years in prison.
The case is closely watched because it's pivotal in a wide-ranging legal fight between Italian authorities and a plethora of non-governmental groups that operate search-and-rescue vessels, mostly off the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.
In recent years, Italy has sought to ban such humanitarian missions, arguing the rescue ships are acting as human traffickers and also dangerously encouraging people to attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing.
But human rights groups call Italy's stance inhumane and a violation of international human rights and maritime laws. They argue they are simply saving refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the Mediterranean and helping them land safely in the EU where they can have their claims for refuge processed.
Thousands of people continue to cross the Mediterranean in rickety boats and dinghies despite a sharp drop in humanitarian vessels such as the Iuventa. Tough-on-migration policies by the European Union's Mediterranean nations have curbed such missions, but governments' coast guards are not filling the gap.
Two catastrophic – and potentially preventable – sea disasters this spring that killed hundreds of migrants off the coasts of Italy and Greece are cruel reminders of just how problematic the EU's approach to migration is. Humanitarian groups allege the curbs on their operations have led to such disasters.
Friday's ruling came ahead of possible criminal proceedings in Trapani. The trial opened preliminary hearings in May 2022.
Defense lawyers were seeking to get the Trapani tribunal to allow Italy's Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, to review aspects of Italy's Immigration Act that severely punish individuals deemed to be aiding illegal immigration.
“Today in court, border protection prevailed over the protection of fundamental rights,” said Francesca Cancellaro, a lawyer for Iuventa, in a statement. “We wanted the High Courts to decide once and for all on the balance between border protection and the protection of human beings.”
There are some 1,500 people – most of them migrants – in prison in Italy who've been charged with aiding and abetting unauthorized entry into the country. About 2,000 people are in Greek prisons on similar grounds.
But the Trapani court dismissed the defense pleas, ruling that they were unfounded or irrelevant. The constitutionality of the law may be raised at trial still and there may be avenues for appeals. In September, the Trapani court is expected to rule on whether the case should proceed to trial.
Regardless, the ruling was a blow to the Iuventa crew and Jugend Rettet, a German association that owns the vessel and which is supporting the legal fight.
The Iuventa set sail in 2016 following a crowdfunding campaign by Jugend Rettet that drew in support from thousands of mostly young people in Berlin. By the time the Iuventa was seized, the boat had brought aboard about 14,000 migrants, the group says.
The vessel also provided first aid, life vests, food and water to migrants and often delivered people it picked up at sea to larger humanitarian vessels operated by international groups, such as Doctors Without Borders.
The Iuventa's launch came amid outcries in Europe over the plight of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war, poverty, disaster and famine in Africa and Asia.
In 2015, Europe was rocked by the arrival of more than 1 million people, many fleeing the catastrophic civil war in Syria. The crisis splintered Europe between those welcoming migrants and those rejecting them. Since then, though, the EU has tightened its borders.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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