"To help those who are in distress is the duty of everyone who is at sea — no matter their origins, skin color, religion, or views," the chairman of the rescue group said.

The ship that was bought by a group of far-right YouTubers to stop refugees getting to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea ran into trouble off the coast of Libya and was offered help by a refugee rescue boat, the group behind the rescue boat said.



A German-language Facebook status posted on Friday by the refugee rescue group Sea-Eye said it had been contacted by the EU Naval Force's (EU NAVFOR) Operation Sophia after it had been notified that the C-Star — commissioned by a far-right group called Generation Identity — was unable to move.

Ultimately, the "Nazi ship" refused the help of the rescue group, its leaders said.

An English-language version of the status provided to BuzzFeed News by Sea-Eye said the C-Star had been "in distress at sea."



EU NAVFOR spokesperson Capt. Ettore Ruiu confirmed to BuzzFeed News that a patrol aircraft had spotted C-Star in international waters near Libya at 9.00 a.m. local time (3.00 a.m. ET) having experienced an engine breakdown.



The Italian marine rescue service in Rome, the MRCC, informed Sea-Eye that its cutter was the closest vessel to the C-Star and so was dispatched to help.

++La Sea-Eye é stata contattata dal MRCC per fornire aiuto alla #CStar. L'equipaggio si sta quindi dirigendo verso… https://t.co/T5zOhltSX8

Sea-Eye Chairman Michael Buschheuer said, "To help those who are in distress is the duty of everyone who is at sea — no matter their origins, skin color, religion or views."



Defend Europe — Generation Identity's campaign to fund the C-Star — then issued its own a statement on Twitter playing down the incident, and repeatedly tweeted that there was "no distress."



Its statement read: "C-Star developed a minor technical problem during the night, in order to rectify before the vessel entered the SAR zone and navigated closer to other vessels, the main engine was stopped.



"This means that under COLREG the vessel is considered 'not under command' and information of this was sent out to vessels nearby in accordance with regulations. The problem is about to be resolved."

According to the would-be rescuers, the far-right Youtubers refused their help when they got in touch via radio. The Sea-Eye then continued on its way to seek refugees in distress.

🇬🇧 The #CStar is having technical difficulty. We're resolving it. No distress. #DefendEurope