Italy seizes German-operated migrant rescue boat claiming it is being used to help ‘clandestine immigration’ from Libya to Europe

‘Italian authorities have seized a migrant rescue boat, accusing its owner of aiding ‘clandestine immigration’.
The 100ft-long vessel, operated by pro-migrant group Jugend Rettet, is currently being held at a Sicilian port.
The move comes after Italian lawmakers approved controversial plans to use warships to prevent migrant boats reaching Europe from Libya – a move branded a ‘recipe for more suffering’ by Amnesty International, which claims intercepted migrants could be at risk of torture.
A prosecutor in Trapani, Sicily, ordered the boat, named The Iuventa, should be put under a preventative seizure today.
Jugend Rettet, which carries out search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, tweeted the boat’s crew was interviewed.
It said it had not received any information about being the target of an investigation.
A police statement said: ‘Enquiries begun in October 2016, and conducted with the use of sophisticated techniques and investigative technology, have produced circumstantial evidence of the motorboat Iuventa being used for activities facilitating illegal immigration.”
Read more: Italy seizes German-operated migrant rescue boat claiming it is being used to help ‘clandestine immigration’ from Libya to Europe