The German captain of a humanitarian rescue ship with 40 migrants aboard has been arrested after she rammed her vessel into an Italian border police motorboat.
Some of the 40 migrants who were on board the Sea-Watch rescue ship disembark at the port of Lampedusa, Italy on Saturday.
The migrants, meanwhile, hugged personnel of the German Sea-Watch charity who helped them during their 17 days at sea. Some kissed the ground after disembarking from Sea-Watch 3 at dawn's break. "It's enough. After 16 days following the rescue, #SeaWatch3 enters in port," the organization tweeted early Saturday shortly before the ship started heading dockside.
Some on the island applauded when the migrants disembarked. But another group yelled insults, including"Gypsy, go home" to the captain. A senator from the opposition Democrats, Davide Faraone, filmed the intense scene and then posted it on Twitter.Her lawyer, Leonardo Marino, told Italian state TV that she was arrested for investigation of resisting a warship, a reference to plowing into the motorboat of the customs and border police force.
But a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, indicated otherwise."Humanitarian reasons cannot justify inadmissible acts against those who work at sea for the safety of everybody," ANSA quoted the prosecutor as saying."Saving lives is a humanitarian duty," he said on Twitter."Rescue at sea must not be criminalized. It's up to the Italian justice system to swiftly resolve the allegations.
Democratic Party lawmaker Graziano Delrio, after disembarking himself, likened her actions to that of a driver of a Red Cross ambulance"which goes through a red light" to speed ailing patients to a hospital.
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