Sea-Watch Captain Investigated Over Migrant Rescue Mission

Italian prosecutors are investigating Anne van Dam, captain of the German rescue ship Sea-Watch 5, on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration following a mission in the central Mediterranean in May.

Il Giornale reported that footage recorded by a Frontex aircraft on 11 May shows two Sea-Watch rescue boats approaching a fast vessel before migrants were transferred to the NGO ship. The newspaper described the masked men aboard the vessel as smugglers, but their identity and any prior coordination with Sea-Watch have not been independently established.

The newspaper also reported on a second rescue on 12 May. Sea-Watch initially described a boat carrying migrants as potentially in distress and later said it had taken about 67 people aboard. Four separate videos reportedly filmed by migrants and obtained by Le Figaro appear to show their boat approaching Sea-Watch 5 rather than the other way around. They also show the migrants being transferred to one of the ship’s rescue boats.

The Libyan Coast Guard claimed that four armed people, including one carrying a machine gun, were aboard the fast boat. The allegation has not been independently verified.

Sea-Watch 5 arrived in Brindisi on 15 May with 166 rescued people aboard. Italian authorities subsequently questioned van Dam. Sea-Watch rejected allegations of coordination with smugglers, saying it had kept the authorities informed throughout the operations and describing the reports as a politically motivated smear campaign.

(ilgiornale, bak)