ROME – A German NGO search and rescue vessel, operating under the Dutch flag and currently carrying 239 migrants, was still awaiting official instructions to port on Friday, shipping sources said, after Interior Minister Matteo Salvini called for Malta to receive the “illegal” ship, which which the deputy prime minister said would later be detained by authorities.

The ‘Lifeline’ vessel, which is carrying 14 women and four children, who were recovered off the Libyan coast whilst attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean, had reiterated that the people were “rescued in international waters, in line with international law.”

However, the xenophobic League leader, Salvini, made his move on Friday morning: “For the safety of crew and passengers we asked Malta to open their ports,” he said on Twitter. “It is clear then that that ship must be seized, and his crew stopped. No more trafficking at sea.”

Stuck in limbo, Mission Lifeline replied to Salvini, stressing that “the dispute on migration must not be carried out at the expense of people in maritime distress.” They swiftly denied his claims of their unlawful activity, posting photos of certificates which confirm legal operation under the Dutch flag.

The rescuers, who had called for help on Thursday, either from the Italian Coast Guard or a merchant ship passing through the area, were dealt fiercely unwelcoming reactions from Italian cabinet ministers after their interventions saved hundreds of migrants in search and rescue waters.

“Take this load of human beings to Holland. Take a slightly longer route,” Salvini had posted on Facebook on Thursday. The ships of these “pseudo-NGO will no longer touch the Italian soil,” he added.

“We expect professional behaviour and that the Libyan forces respects international law,” the NGO announced.

Critical of Salvini’s staunchly anti-migrant stance, Mission Lifeline co-founder Axel Steier said, “again, it shows that the plight of the people in Libya is so great that people take this dangerous path to flee.”

“As a European, we cannot look the other way! Nor is it a solution to leave people to Libyan militia, because we know that Libya is not a safe place,” he continued.

However, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli also went on the front foot, impeding the landing of the migrants: “The NGO Lifeline ship is operating in Libyan waters, outside of international law,” he said on Facebook, adding that “they boarded about 250 people without having the technical means to guarantee the safety of the shipwrecked and the crew,” he continued.

Mission Lifeline “is not cooperating with the Libyan coast guard who, from the first information acquired, was intervening to save migrants and bring them back to Libyan territory,” Toninelli said.

As Mission Lifeline await orders for their next move, the said that their “goal is to save people in distress from drowning. In doing so, we focus on the sea area, where most people worldwide are currently dying - the central Mediterranean.”

“We are not standing by people dying in the Mediterranean, while a human and political solution is waiting.”

The German maritime rescue organisation assisted in a further rescue mission on Thursday night and had salvaged 126 people stranded at sea over the weekend, who were later handed over to the Italian Coast Guard to be taken ashore.

Since their founding in 2016, the organisation, who finance their operations through public donations, has successfully saved 675 people trying to cross the Mediterranean to European soil.

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