Saving refugees from drowning, criminal?

This German TV video in English says about itself:

Iuventa – Rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean Sea

25 July 2017

Join me in 360 on a rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea. The vessel “Iuventa”, Italian for youth, is run by volunteers of the German NGO “Jugend rettet”. Their area of operation is off the Libyan coast, the deadliest migration route. Lately, the rescuers are confronted with harsh criticism. What do you think?

After hardline European Commission pressure led to torturing refugees in Italy … now it leads to letting more refugees drown.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Italy chains ship of German rescue organization

Yesterday, 21:14

The Italian authorities have chained a ship from a German rescue organization which seeks to save refugees on boats. Italy accuses the organization of taking over refugees from human traffickers at the Libyan coast.

According to the Italian authorities, the aid organization is guilty of illegal immigration. But to Associated Press news agency, Public Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio says: “My personal conviction is that the motive [of Jugend Rettet] is humanitarian, exclusively humanitarian.”

So, apparently there is Mr Cartosio the human being, telling the truth.

And there is Mr Cartosio the robot of xenophobic governmental and European Union policy, making saving human beings from drowning a crime.

The Iuventa, navigating under the Dutch flag may no longer leave the port of Lampedusa, a small island near Sicily. The ship is manned by volunteers from the group Jugend Rettet (Youth Saves) from Berlin.

Fewer relief organizations

Italy wants to significantly reduce the number of aid organizations active in the Mediterranean area. The country only wants to allow ships from non-governmental organizations affiliated with Frontex, the European border agency for the external borders of Europe.

Dear Italian government: if a non-governmental organization gets affiliated with governmental Frontex, then it ceases to be ‘non-governmental’. Frontex aims to keep refugees out, whatever the cost in human lives. This is like telling a non-governmental organisation criticizing torture by police that they will be banned unless they affiliate with that torturing police force.

Accusations are false, Jugend Rettet says.

On August 3, the Italian government sent the frigate Commandante Borsini into Libyan territorial waters to stop refugees fleeing Libya for Europe. This violation of the sovereignty of Libya, a former Italian colony, aims to destroy refugee vessels and force refugees back into Libya, where the militias that have controlled the country ever since the devastating NATO war against Libya in 2011 detain them in appalling conditions: here.

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