MSF rescue ship sets sail again to the Mediterranean after 60 days detained by Italian authorities

MADRID 23 Nov. () –

The rescue ship of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the ‘Geo Barents’, has finally resumed its rescue mission in the Mediterranean this Saturday after 60 days detained by order of the Italian authorities.

The ship and its crew had been immersed in an administrative labyrinth since last August 26 for, allegedly, not having provided information in time to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC).

The Italian authorities issued two arrest warrants, the first of which imposed the detention of the ship for 60 days under the so-called “Piantedosi Decree”, promoted by the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, on immigration regulation and migrant rescues. in the Mediterranean.

A court overturned this first stoppage but the ship was subject to a second arrest warrant after an inspection by the Italian port authorities, a tool that MSF denounces as an “instrument of harassment to obstruct the work of humanitarian ships.”

Finally, MSF has announced that the ship has set sail this morning from the port of Naples, in what it describes as the end of a “double and politically motivated detention”, after “adopting all the measures recommended” by the authorities.