WORLD / Society

Italy seizes charity's ship that picked up migrants after it refused to turn them over to Libya

The Spanish NGO's Proactiva Open Arms vessel is seen at harbor at the port of Pozzallo, in the southern Italian island of Sicily, Monday. The NGO's migrant rescue ship has been put under sequester by prosecutors' orders Sunday in Pozzallo, where the vessel brought 216 migrants it had rescued last week in the Mediterranean north of Libya. | AP

Reuters

Mar 20, 2018

ROME –

Italian authorities seized a charity's ship on suspicion it had helped illegal immigration by picking up migrants in the Mediterranean instead of letting Libya's coast guard take them back to North Africa, the aid group said.

The Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms picked up 218 migrants who were in unsafe rubber boats in international waters off Libya's coast on Thursday, then took them to Sicily, the Italian coast guard said.

The charity ignored a message from the Libyan coast guard claiming responsibility for taking in migrants in that stretch of sea, the Italian coast guard added in a statement

Italy seizes charity's ship that picked up migrants after it refused to turn them over to Libya

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