A German migrant rescue NGO has pledged to continue rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean despite the arrest of one of its captains in Italy.
Sea Watch 3 skipper Carola Rackete was arrested over the weekend for disembarking 40 migrants at Lampedusa despite being banned from doing so and for ramming a police boat.
A judge denied an Italian prosecutors' request to uphold the 31 year old's house arrest on Tuesday, though it wasn't immediately clear if she can leave Italy.
RAI state Italian TV said the judge concluded that the German captain was "doing her duty saving human lives" when she docked the ship belonging to a German humanitarian group at an Italian island last week in defiance of Italian authorities
Ruben Neugebauer, a spokesman for the Sea Watch group, said: "We will continue to make sure human rights are respected in the Mediterranean... if necessary with a new ship if our own ship (Sea-Watch 3) remains impounded.”
Sea Watch 3 had been caught up in a two-week standoff with Italian authorities who refuses to let the ship dock.
German foreign minister Heiko Maas' calls for Miss Rackete to be released have been derided by Italy’s hardline, anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini, who described the Sea Watch 3 captain as a “criminal.”
On Tuesday it was reported by Spiegel magazine that Germany had agreed to take in a dozen of the migrants saved by Sea Watch 3, Reuters said.
More than $1.1 million (Dh4.04 million) has reportedly been raised to cover Miss Rackete’s legal costs.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Security-General, said on Monday "that sea rescue is a long‑standing humanitarian imperative."
While he said he was not speaking about any particular case, he added: "It's also an obligation under international law. No vessel or shipmaster should be at the risk of fine coming to the aid of boats in distress where loss of life be imminent."
