Italy blocks MSF rescue ship for two months

September 24 () –

Italian authorities have ordered a two-month blockade of the Geo Barents, a ship belonging to the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), following accusations by the Libyan Coast Guard concerning one of the latest operations carried out in the central Mediterranean.

The Geo Barents carried out two rescues last week, helping more than 200 migrants, who were eventually taken to the port of Genoa. In the first of these, it criticised “dangerous manoeuvres” by the Libyan coastguard.

Now, complaints filed by the North African country’s Coast Guard have cost the MSF ship a detention order for a period of 60 days, according to the NGO itself, which has also reported a second blocking measure after the detection of “eight alleged technical deficiencies” during an “exhaustive” inspection.

This is the eighth time the Geo Barents has been blocked in Italy, a measure that, according to MSF, prevents it from “fulfilling its legal obligation to save lives at sea.” More than 1,100 migrants and refugees have died in the central Mediterranean in 2024, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“The Italian authorities continue to give credibility to the Libyan Coast Guard, accused by the UN and other human rights NGOs of committing crimes against humanity,” lamented MSF, which opens the door to a possible challenge to measures it has described as “arbitrary, selective and inhumane.”