“Iuventa” ruling, MSF: “Stop criminalization of rescues at sea, 6 people die a day”

The reasons of the Trapani Gup were made known. Bertotto: "Sentence brings truth after 7 years of mud machine"

ROME – Saving human lives is not a crime, as confirmed by the reasons of the Trapani Gup in the case of the migrant rescue ship“Iuventa” of the German NGO Jugend Rettet, reasons which, once made known, are highlighted for their relevance by Marco Bertotto, director of operations of Doctors Without Borders Italy, who invites us to open a debate on rescue in sea.

“We hope that this sentence will help us to bring the issue of the importance of saving lives at sea back into public opinion”: this is what Bertotto declared to Dire, commenting on the reasons made known today, in regarding the ruling of no place to proceed pronounced by the preliminary hearing judge of the Trapani court last April, in the case of the Jugend Rettet ship ‘Iuventa’. In addition to the staff of the German NGO, MSF and Save the Children workers also ended up on trial in 2017 for crimes related to aiding and abetting irregular immigration: ten in total, all finally acquitted because according to the Gup “the fact does not exist”.

Bertotto continues: “This sentence brings back a bit of truth after 7 years of mud-slinging against NGOs. The judge declared what we already knew all along: the fact does not subsiststhat is, no crime has been committed”. Yet, the MSF manager highlights, “we are still at the mercy of a criminalization campaign made up of measures against NGO ships or actions that hinder rescue at sea.The hope is that This sentence could really allow us to restore a debate in Italy on the urgency of rescuing lives at sea, at a time when 6 people a day lose their lives in the central Mediterranean”.