Italian police arrested on Saturday the German captain of a migrant-rescue ship at the centre of a standoff with the Italian government after she docked at the island port of Lampedusa.

The Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3, operated by German charity Sea-Watch, has been at sea for more than two weeks with 40 rescued Africans on board. The Africans were allowed to disembark and were taken to a reception centre on the island.

After waiting in international waters for an invitation from Italy or an EU state to accept the ship, captain Carola Rackete decided this week to sail for the southern Italian island of Lampedusa but was blocked by Italian government vessels.

But in the early hours of Saturday morning, Rackete entered the port where the ship docked amid a heavy police presence. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption German sea captain Carola Rackete is arrested in Lampedusa after migrant rescue in Mediterranean

Italy's far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has accused the captain of a ship carrying rescued migrants of trying to sink a police boat.

Carola Rackete was arrested at the Italian port of Lampedusa after a two-week stand-off with police at sea.

Her vessel, Sea-Watch 3, was banned from docking, but it eventually entered the port on Friday night.

On Saturday, Mr Salvini called Ms Rackete a "rich, white, German woman" who had committed "an act of war".

"She tried to sink a police launch with officers on board at night," he said. "They say 'we're saving lives', but they risked killing these human beings who were doing their job, it's clear from the videos."

Mr Salvini added: "A vessel weighing hundreds of tonnes tried to ram... a police launch with officers aboard, who managed to get out of the way to save their lives. That's a criminal act, an act of war."

Ms Rackete could face a 10-year jail term if convicted of attacking a police boat.

She had rescued 53 migrants off the coast of Libya on 12 June, who were drifting on an inflatable raft in the Mediterranean sea.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Carola Rackete was led off Sea-Watch 3 without handcuffs

After docking in the Italian port, the 31-year-old German was filmed being led away by police.

Some 13 migrants have been taken in by the authorities for health reasons, while Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the G20 summit that several EU countries had agreed to take in the 40 remaining migrants.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Matteo Salvini accused Ms Rackete of "an act of war"

Mr Salvini wants clarity on "numbers, timelines and means" before he allows them off the ship, interior ministry sources told AFP news agency.

He previously said the migrants could only disembark if they headed straight to the Netherlands, where the Sea-Watch 3 is registered, or to Germany.

Ms Rackete said Sea-Watch had tried to co-operate with the authorities, engaging with Italy, Germany, Malta and France and opening contacts with the European Commission.

However, after two weeks in limbo, the German charity Sea-Watch said the boat was forced to enter Italian waters, as there was no other option left to ensure the migrants' safety.

Who is Carola Rackete?

The "rich, white, German woman" who riled Mr Salvini has a nautical degree and studied environmental sciences in the UK.

The 31-year-old has taken part in expeditions, both for research organisations and for the environmental group Greenpeace.

Ms Rackete later joined Sea Watch, a non-governmental association that carries out rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Carola Rackete was taken away in a police car on 29 June

Now a left-wing hero, she has very little social media presence, except for posting video updates of the rescue mission on Twitter in recent weeks.

In the latest one, she said: "I have decided to enter the harbour, which is free at night, on my own."

Sea Watch chairman Johannes Bayer expressed support for Ms Rackete's actions and tweeted that he was "proud of our captain". </s> MILAN (Reuters) - Italian police arrested on Saturday the German captain of a migrant-rescue ship at the centre of a standoff with the Italian government after she docked at the port of Lampedusa.

The Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3, operated by German charity Sea-Watch, has been at sea for more than two weeks with 40 rescued Africans on board.

After waiting in international waters for an invitation from Italy or an EU state to accept the ship, captain Carola Rackete decided this week to sail for the southern Italian island of Lampedusa but was blocked by Italian government vessels.

But in the early hours of Saturday, Rackete entered the port where the ship docked amid a heavy police presence.

Live television video showed Rackete being taken off the Sea Watch by tax police and driven away.

RAI state TV said she had been arrested for “resisting a war ship” which, RAI said, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

The migrants remain on board the ship.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s interior minister and head of the right-wing League party, had previously said he would only allow Rackete to dock when other EU states agree to immediately take the migrants.

Even then, he said, Italian authorities would seize the ship and prosecute its captain for assisting people-smugglers, he said.

Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters at the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday three or four European countries were willing to take part in the redistribution of the migrants.

Rackete is already under investigation for breaking Italy’s beefed up laws against non-government rescue ships. </s> The captain of a migrant rescue ship has been arrested at the Italian port of Lampedusa after a two-week stand-off with police at sea.Carola Rackete’s vessel, Sea-Watch 3, was carrying …Read more via BBC News – https://ift.tt/2XcSCmJ Get more World News </s> ROME (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors have put the German captain of a rescue ship under investigation for allegedly aiding people-smugglers, raising the stakes in a standoff that is preventing the boat coming ashore with 40 rescued migrants from Africa.

After two weeks stranded at sea off southern Italy, captain Carola Rackete, 31, has become a symbol of defiance in Italian media for challenging Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s policy of closing ports to non-government rescue ships.

A prosecutor in Sicily, southern Italy, said on Friday that Rackete had been put under investigation as a formality, under recently beefed-up laws that seek to prevent rescue ships from disembarking migrants in the country.

Asked about the investigation, Rackete said she had not been advised of that and she could not comment on “rumors”.

Salvini says Rackete and her crew of the Sea Watch are “pirates” who are helping criminal gangs to smuggle Africans into Europe. The migrants set off in flimsy boats from Libya in the expectation they will be rescued and taken to nearby Italy.

Asked about the Italian minister’s criticism, Rackete responded sharply: “To be honest I haven’t read the comments, I really don’t have time. I have 40 people to take care of ... Mister Salvini might just get in line.” </s> BERLIN — High-level support and almost three-quarters of a million dollars in donations poured in Sunday for the German captain of a migrant rescue ship who was arrested after she defied repeated orders to stay out of Italy and struck a police boat while bringing 40 people to port.

Carola Rackete remained under house arrest a day after her ship, the Sea-Watch 3, rammed the Italian border police motorboat that was blocking the entry to the port at Italy’s Lampedusa island.

Rackete, 31, “had no intention of hurting anyone” and only wanted to get her passengers to land, Italian lawyer Salvatore Tesoriero said.

The Sea-Watch 3 picked up the migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya on June 12 and had been in a standoff with Italian authorities for weeks before the captain decided to force the issue, reportedly saying she feared some of her passengers might harm themselves.

“Whoever saves lives isn’t a criminal,” two German TV personalities wrote in an appeal for contributions to help support Rackete and Sea-Watch, the German nonprofit group that owns the rescue ship. More than 24,000 donors responded, giving over $745,390 as of Sunday evening.

Rackete could face up to 10 years in prison, if she is convicted of resisting a warship, a charge that refers to plowing into the border police motorboat. She also could be fined up to $58,000 under a recent law designed to strengthen Italian government policies targeting private migrant rescue vessels.

The Sea-Watch 3 entered Lampedusa’s port 17 days after it picked up 53 migrants off Libya; 13 of the rescued passengers were allowed to disembark earlier for medical reasons.

“Italy is at the heart of the European Union, a founding state of the European Union,” Steinmeier told German public broadcaster ZDF in an interview late Sunday. “And that’s why we can expect a country like Italy to deal with such a case differently.”

His comments were met with a swift retort from Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who earlier called the Sea-Watch 3 captain a “criminal” who committed an “act of war” by ignoring orders to keep out of Italy’s waters.

“We ask the German president to keep busy with what’s happening in Germany and possibly invite his fellow citizens to avoid breaking Italian laws, risking the killing of Italy’s law enforcement forces,” Salvini said in a tweet Sunday evening.

No one was injured when Sea-Watch 3 struck the border police vessel, but Italian authorities said some officers had to scramble out of the way and the motorboat’s side was damaged.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Rackete could have sailed to many other ports in the Mediterranean to seek permission to dock. He accused the captain of carrying out “political blackmail…using 40 people.”

Some in Germany agreed with the Italian government’s position.

Petr Bystron, a foreign policy spokesman for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, said Rackete was “a common criminal.” Speaking to German daily newspaper Welt, Bystron said she should have taken the rescued migrants to Africa or the Netherlands, since the ship sailed under the Dutch flag.

At Italy’s insistence, five fellow European Union nations including Germany said they would take the remaining 40 migrants who landed on Lampedusa. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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ROME: The young German captain of a migrant-rescue ship stranded off Italy dismissed threats of arrest and personal criticism from the country's far right interior minister on Friday (Jun 28), saying her main priority was the safety of 40 rescued Africans.

After two weeks at sea, the dreadlocked 31-year-old, Carola Rackete has become a symbol of defiance for challenging the authority of minister Matteo Salvini, known as "Il Capitano" at home for closing ports to non-government rescue ships.

Speaking to reporters from her ship, the Sea Watch, via a Skype connection, Rackete said she was forced to enter Italian waters due to the worsening condition of the migrants plucked by her crew from international seas off Libya on Jun 12.

"The need which we have on board is psychological...The necessity to go into port is to prevent any harm or any self-harm which people might be contemplating," she said.

Rackete, a conservationist who has served on cruise ships and on a Greenpeace vessel in the past, has drawn strong support from Italy's pro-immigration opposition parties and also felt the sting of Salvini's ever-busy Twitter account.

She says she now devotes her time to rescuing migrants as a reaction to her privileged upbringing.

"My life was easy ... I am white, German, born in a rich country and with the right passport," she said in comments provided by Germany's Sea Watch, a charity that has been running rescue operations in the Mediterranean since 2014.

"When I realized it, I felt a moral obligation to help those who did not have the same opportunities as me."

In a stream of tweets, the latest on Friday, Salvini has called her a pirate and outlaw, and drawn attention to her motivation for captaining a rescue vessel.

"The lady has said 'I have to volunteer because I was born white, rich and German'. But not everybody who is white, rich and German have to come and break Italy's balls. Help the kids in Germany!"

On Friday, Salvini also compared her with an earlier rescue volunteer from another charity, a man who sported a red mohawk and was reported to have called the minister a "fascist".

ITALY WANTS EU HELP WITH MIGRANTS

Salvini says he will only allow Rackete to dock when other EU states agree to immediately take the migrants once ashore, and even then Italian authorities would seize the ship and prosecute its captain for assisting people-smugglers.

However, a European Commission official was quoted by Italian news agency AGI on Friday as saying the allocation of migrants among EU nations needed to be worked out and that in the meantime the ship must be allowed to dock.

After waiting in international waters for an invitation from Italy or another EU state to accept the Sea Watch, Rackete decided this week to sail for the southern Italian island of Lampedusa but was blocked by Italian government vessels.

On board the ship, sitting off Lampedusa, Rackete responded sharply when asked to comment on Salvini's criticisms.

"To be honest I haven't read the comments, I really don't have time. I have 40 people to take care of ... Mister Salvini might just get in line."

Rackete is already under investigation for breaking Italy's beefed up laws against non-government rescue ships. A prosecutor in southern Italy added that it was a formality once the Sea Watch had entered Italian waters.

Sea Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said the group hoped Rackete would be allowed to dock later on Friday or Saturday and that it was a disgrace for Europe that it was taking so long.

"We are really proud of our captain that doesn't hesitate to even take personal consequences for doing exactly the right thing, for following the law of the sea and for bringing these people to safety," Neugebauer told Reuters TV in Berlin.

Sea Watch asked the European Court of Human Rights to force Italian authorities to allow the ship to dock, but the request was rejected. Instead, the court ruled that Italy should provide all necessary assistance to those aboard.

In a tweet on Friday, Rackete said she was ready to face the consequences of Italian law. Once informed that she was under investigation, she tweeted: "I will deal with everything with the support of lawyers and Sea Watch, now I just want people to be put ashore." </s> Lampedusa(Italy): Italian police arrested on Saturday the German captain of a migrant-rescue ship at the centre of a standoff with the Italian government, after she docked at the island port of Lampedusa.

The Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3, operated by German charity Sea-Watch, has been at sea for more than two weeks with 40 rescued Africans on board. The Africans were allowed to disembark and were taken to a reception centre on the island.

After waiting in international waters for an invitation from Italy or an EU state to accept the ship, captain Carola Rackete decided this week to sail for the southern Italian island of Lampedusa but was blocked by Italian government vessels.

But in the early hours of Saturday morning, Rackete entered the port where the ship docked amid a heavy police presence.

Live television video showed the 31-year old German being taken off Sea-Watch 3 by tax police and driven away amid applause and barracking from bystanders gathered at the port.

She has been arrested for "resisting a war ship", a charge which, according to media reports, carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Italy's right-wing interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who is taking a tough line against migrant rescue ships, previously said he would only allow Rackete to dock when other European Union states agree to immediately take the migrants.

"Outlaw arrested. Pirate ship seized. Big fine on foreign NGO. Migrants all redistributed in other European countries. Mission completed," Salvini said in a tweet on Saturday.

He said Sea-Watch 3, which had not been given permission to dock, had put at risk tax police by squashing one of their motor launches against the port front as it tried to stop the docking.

Salvini, who criticised the Netherlands saying it had given the ship a flag and then washed its hands of the matter, told RAI radio that Italy had been given assurances by five European countries they would take the migrants.

He did not name the countries but media reports said France, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland and Portugal had agreed.

France's interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said in a statement that the French authorities would take in 10 of the migrants.

Speaking at the G20 summit in Osaka, Premier Giuseppe Conte said that, as a lawyer, he recognised there were grounds for possible criminal charges but said it was up to judges to apply the law. "But laws are laws whether you like them or not," he said.

Rackete, who has become a symbol of defiance for challenging Salvini's authority, is already under investigation for breaking Italy's beefed up laws against non-government rescue ships.

A Foreign Office source said on Saturday under Italian laws Sea-Watch 3 would be seized, adding it faced a fine of 20,000 euros ($22,700) which, if not paid, could reach 50,000 euros.

Migration policy has been among the sources of tension between Italy and EU neighbour France.

Castaner used his statement to criticise unilateral moves by Italy and defend French and EU support for Italy in handling migrant arrivals.

"It is false to say that the EU has not shown solidarity towards Italy in this context," he said. </s> MILAN (AP) — Two more migrants have been evacuated from a German rescue ship overnight for medical reasons, leaving 40 passengers who were saved off Libya 16 days ago still blocked offshore by Italy's refusal to let them disembark.

Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete has twice defied direct orders from port authorities, first not to enter Italian waters and second in her attempted approach to the port of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island. Law enforcement who boarded the ship Thursday evening asked for patience, saying a resolution appeared near, but none came overnight.

It is the latest stand-off between Italy's hard-line interior minister and humanitarian rescue ships that the populist government accuses of aiding migrant traffickers. The EU has urged Italy to bring the migrants to land.
Carola Rackete, the captain of a migrant rescue ship, is arrested in Italy for docking without authorization after Italy closed its ports to rescue organizations.