The Geo Barents, a ship operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operating in the Mediterranean Sea, was seized for 60 days in the port of Salerno on Monday evening, as Italian authorities said the organization violated current migration regulations.
Geo Barents cannot go to sea for sixty days. The captain of the ship was fined 3,300 euros.
Since the spring of 2021, the seventy-seven-meter-long, Norwegian-marked ship has been leased by Doctors Without Borders and used in the Mediterranean Sea. It only transports people to the Italian coast.
The Geo Barents arrived in the port of Salerno on Monday morning with 191 migrants on board. The Italian authorities announced the seizure of the ship in the evening.
According to the rationale
the Geo Barents violated migration regulations in force since March last year, according to which civilian vessels must cooperate with the Rome-based coordination center of the Italian Coast Guard. He also didn't follow the rule that these ships can only bring one group to Italy at a time, and they can't wait for days at sea "collecting" as many people as possible.
After the arrival of the Geo Barents, the authorities inspected the ship as usual and found several technical deficiencies.
Doctors Without Borders called the measure arbitrary and inhumane on its social media pages.
The ship Geo Barents was detained in Italian ports for the third time in the last one year.
According to data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the Life Support ship of the Italian medical organization called Emergency, Trotamar III, operated by the German organization People in Motion, and the ship of the Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, Mare Jonio, are currently active in the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea. The latter is accompanied by the sailing ship Migrantes, which is maintained by the foundation of the same name of the Italian episcopate.
MTI
Photo: MSF/Skye McKee
