ROME, August 27, 2024 — Italian authorities have issued a 60-day detention order for the Geo Barents, a search and rescue ship operated by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for alleged violations of maritime safety regulations.
The detention order, issued on August 26, followed several rescue operations that took place in the early hours of August 23 in the Central Mediterranean. The order alleges that the Geo Barents failed to provide timely information to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and endangered people's lives. MSF refutes these allegations, which are based on information provided by the Libyan Coast Guard.
“The EU-supported Libyan Coast Guard, whom the Italian authorities consider a reliable actor, has been documented and accused by the United Nations of complicity in serious human rights violations in Libya, amounting to crimes against humanity, collusion with smugglers and traffickers, and of being responsible for violent pushbacks at sea,” said Juan Matias Gil, MSF search and rescue representative. “We have been sanctioned for simply fulfilling our legal duty to save lives.”
On the day of the detention order, MSF teams on Geo Barents conducted five rescue operations. MSF has been accused of not providing timely information about the third rescue that occurred on that date. During that third rescue, MSF witnessed a significant number of people going overboard within the vicinity of the ship.
“It was in the middle of the night. We saw people jumping off a fiberglass boat, falling or being pushed into the water,” said Riccardo Gatti, MSF search and rescue team leader. “Our teams had no choice but to go, stabilize people, and retrieve them out of water as quickly as possible. There was an imminent danger of people drowning or getting lost in the darkness of the night.”
This is the third time the Geo Barents has been detained and this is the longest in its history. It marks the twenty-third occasion in which a humanitarian rescue ship has been detained since the Piantedosi Decree was passed in early 2023. As well as violating international and European laws, the Piantedosi Decree has exacerbated the already insufficient search and rescue capacity at sea, making the central Mediterranean—one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes—even more deadly.
Saving lives is not a crime
Read more“This is yet another example of how much the Piantedosi Decree not only contravenes international and European laws but is also contradictory to the obligations to act in the face of a state of necessity when human lives are at risk,” said Gil. "The authorities are forcing us to prioritize either saving people at sea or the freedom of the rescue ship. The preservation of human life is at the core of our MSF's social mission, and we will therefore be contesting this unlawful detention through the appropriate legal channels."
The Geo Barents is currently unable to conduct rescues in the Mediterranean due to the aforementioned detention. MSF urges the Italian authorities to release the Geo Barents from this detention to fulfill its duty of rescuing lives and cease immediately obstructing humanitarian lifesaving assistance at sea. We also call on the EU and its member states to suspend all material and financial support to the Libyan Coast Guard and authorities with a track record of human rights violations.
MSF search and rescue in the Mediterranean Sea
MSF has been active in search and rescue activities since 2015, working on eight different rescue vessels (alone or in partnership with other NGOs) and rescuing more than 91,000 people. Since launching search and rescue operations on the Geo Barents in May 2021, MSF teams have rescued more than 12,300 people, recovered the bodies of 24, arranged for medical evacuation of four, and assisted in the delivery of one baby.
