Italy Arrests the Captain of a Migrant Rescue Ship

Luke Darby
Carola Rackete has been arrested for docking in Italy with 40 rescued Libyans on board.

For the past two weeks, a rescue ship has been stuck at sea off the Italian island Lampedusa with more than 40 Libyan migrants on board. The Sea-Watch 3 picked them up in the Mediterranean, and the Italian government issued an order blocking the ship from docking. This weekend, the stand-off finally ended when the ship's captain, German Carola Rackete, made the decision to dock and face arrest rather than keep waiting for safe harbor for the 42 people on board.

In a video posted to Twitter late Friday night, Rackete said, "Even though in the afternoon the prosecution has opened an investigation against me, at the same time they notified us that they will not help to bring the rescued off the ship.I have decided to enter the harbor, which is free at night, on my own."

In the last decade, Italy has become a major entry point for people fleeing violence and famine in north Africa and the middle east. Like the Trump administration's recent attempts to prosecute humanitarian aid for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the Italian government is trying to stop the influx of migrants by targeting the people who help them. Under a new law championed by Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini, rescue boats that bring migrants to Italy without permission can be seized and fined up to 50,000 euros (about $57,000). Salvini has hailed himself as his country's version of Donald Trump, and his party admires Trump's hardline immigration policies. Salvini has even referred to his own policies as "the Trump cure."

Rescue operations like Sea Watch have inspired fierce backlash, including an effort, praised by a menagerie of international far-right figures, to physically blockade ships with rescued migrants from entering Europe. Earlier this year, the European Union announced it would end its own rescue patrols, despite a track record of saving thousands of people.

The 40 migrants will reportedly be taken in by Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal, according to CNN.

Originally Appeared on GQ