Rescue charity to take Italy to court over migrants trapped on boat

A charity is preparing to take the Italian government to court after officials refused to allow 35 migrants rescued at sea off its ship.

The migrants - deemed by officials as "healthy" - were told to stay on board the rescue vessel in Sicily, while another 144 were allowed to disembark.

The ship's captain has since refused authorities' demands to leave the port.

The stand-off came as Italy's government repeated its vow to halt migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean.

Far-right infrastructure minister Matteo Salvini told Italian radio on Monday it was not just people who were being trafficked in increasingly dangerous "organised trips", but weapons and drugs too.

Migrants set sail in small, overcrowded boats from North Africa, often get into distress and are rescued by charity vessels.

SOS Humanity - which sails under a German flag - was one of two rescue vessels allowed to dock in Catania, Sicily, over the weekend. It had already been at sea for 13 days, waiting for a "place of safety". Two other ships remain at sea.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi argued that those who did not qualify as vulnerable would have to leave Italian waters and should be taken care of by the "flag state", which in this case would be Germany.

But according to Till Rummenhohl, SOS Humanity's head of operations, the decisions over who qualified as vulnerable had taken place under "arbitrary and inadequate conditions".

The German charity says a decree by Italian minister that allowed the move breaks both Italian and international law.

"Under international law, a search and rescue operation is concluded with the disembarkation of the survivors in a place of safety," explained Mirka Schäfer, SOS Humanity's advocacy officer, in a press release on Monday.

SOS Humanity is now appealing to the Administrative Regional Tribunal in Rome against the decree, as well as beginning "fast track" proceedings in Catania itself, so that those remaining on board can have their asylum claims heard "on land".

The Italian government has yet to respond to the threat of legal action.

Both SOS Humanity and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which runs the second ship docked in Catania, have argued everyone on board their ships was vulnerable as they had been rescued from the sea.

Both boats in Catania - as well as the two that remain at sea - have reported people sleeping on floors and decks, the spread of fever-inducing infections and scabies, and food and medical supplies running low. Some migrants have been on the ships for more than two weeks.