Blaming the Rescuers
▻https://blamingtherescuers.org/iuventa
►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CQaj2KNIZw
In our report we analysed and countered the arguments used to fuel a “toxic narrative” against rescue NGOs, which emanated from EU agencies such as Frontex and different institutional bodies in Italy. While this campaign had remained largely on a discursive level, over the summer of 2017 it quickly escalated with the Italian government’s attempt to impose a “code of conduct” on rescue NGOs. An intense standoff ensued as several NGOs, from larger organisations such as Doctors without Borders to smaller ones such as the German Jugend Rettet (‘Youth Rescue’), refused to sign it before the announced deadline of 31 July 2017, claiming that the code would have threatened their activities at sea with requests that a leading legal scholar had described as “nonsensical”, “dishonest” and “illegal”.
On 2 August 2017, only days after this deadline had passed, Jugend Rettet’s ship, the Iuventa, was seized by the Italian judiciary. Its crew was accused of having colluded with smugglers during three different rescue operations: the first on the 10 September 2016, the second and third on 18 June 2017. The order of seizure contended that on those occasions the Iuventa was being used to “aiding and abetting illegal immigration” by arranging the direct handover of migrants by smugglers and returning empty boats for re-use.
The video presented here offers a counter-investigation of the authorities’ version, and a refutation of their accusations.
