Italian authorities order seizure of migrant rescue ship

Italian authorities have ordered the seizure of a charity rescue ship after it defied the government’s order not to bring refugees and migrants to Italy.

On Tuesday, volunteers onboard the Mare Jonio rescued about 50 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya, prompting Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, to say he was ready to stop private vessels “once and for all” from bringing rescued people to Italy.

Salvini, who is also the deputy prime minister, has repeatedly declared Italian waters closed to NGO rescue vessels and has left several of them stranded at sea in an attempt to force the rest of Europe to take in more asylum seekers.

Related: Italian charity ship defies Rome to rescue 50 off Libyan coast

After the rescue operation, the ship headed to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, “the closest safe haven in the area where the rescue was executed”, Mare Jonio’s press office in Rome said, and those onboard were eventually allowed to disembark during the night.

Salvini described the passage of rescue ships in territorial waters as “detrimental to the order and security of the Italian state” as, on Tuesday morning, he released an eight-page directive on the laws regarding rescue operations that said: “There must be sanctions for those who explicitly violate international, European and national rescue regulations.

“This was not a rescue operation,. This is abetting illegal immigration. It was all planned and they had organised this operation days before.” He also suggested volunteers on the Mare Jonio were plotting against him.

In January, a court in Italy ruled Salvini should be tried for kidnapping 177 migrants he prevented from disembarking the Italian coastguard ship Ubaldo Diciotti last August.

The Mare Jonio rescue occurred less than 24 hours before a crucial vote in the Italian senate, scheduled for Wednesday, when members will have to decide whether Salvini should stand trial or the proceedings should be halted.

“I’m not that kind of minister who doesn’t lift a finger if someone is dying at sea,” Salvini said on Wednesday in a statement before the Senate vote.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, after the rescued migrants disembarked the Mare Jonio, the authorities seized the boat and opened an investigation into the alleged aiding of clandestine immigration. The investigation is as yet against a person or persons unknown.

The 38-metre Mare Jonio, flying Italy’s flag, was bought and equipped by a coalition of leftwing politicians, anti-racist associations, intellectuals and art figures, under the supervision and support of two NGOs, Proactiva of Spain and the aid group Sea-Watch. Its mission has been named Mediterranea.

“Excellent,” Salvini said. “The anarchist squatters’ ship has been seized. Now in Italy there is a government that defends borders and respects the law, above all, laws broken by people traffickers. Those who do wrong will pay.”

NGO ships have drawn fire from Rome by attempting, on occasion, to stop refugees and migrants being taken back to crisis-hit Libya, which human rights organisations say is not safe for repatriations.

On Tuesday, at least 12 people went missing off the coast of Sabratha in Libya after a boat capsized, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Fifteen survivors were rescued and returned to Libya where they received medical treatment. Those injured were in critical condition, the IOM said.

So far in 2019, 234 people have died in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM.