Sixty-three deputies from the center and the left denounce a "disturbing drift" of "imprisoning people who save lives", after the arrest in Italy of the Sea-Watch captain, in a forum published by the JDD .
Carola Rackete was arrested last week for unlawfully accosting Lampedusa to disembark 40 migrants rescued at sea. On Tuesday, an Italian judge overturned her arrest on the grounds that she had acted to save lives, but she is still covered by two investigations.
Opposed to the sanctions for the two offending captains
"We, members of all sides, strongly oppose the worrying drift of imprisoning people who save lives," say MPs, led by Nadia Essayan (MoDem). In addition to the case of Carola Rackete, they also mention that of another captain, Pia Klemp, "who also saved many lives in the Mediterranean" and "continued by the Italian justice".
"The arrest and prosecution of these two women has provoked outrage across borders, and neither they, nor their crews, nor the boat-owning NGOs can be punished for humanitarian acts", say the deputies. They demand "that the European states agree as soon as possible to find at European level a landing mechanism that allows the responsibility not to rest on a single state but on several".
Favorable to the "decriminalization of the crime of solidarity"
They also pleaded for the debate "on the decriminalization of the offense of solidarity" to be "open at European level, so that the 'principle of fraternity' is gaining ground". The Sages had consecrated in July 2018 this "principle of fraternity" in the name of which disinterested aid to foreigners can not be pursued ("crime of solidarity").
Among the signatories are several LREM deputies like Barbara Pompili and Aurore Bergé, several MoDem deputies like Richard Ramos and Bruno Joncour, and deputies out of the majority like Matthieu Ophelin (formerly LREM), Ericka Bareigts (PS), Sylvia Pinel (Party radical left), Paul Molac (Liberties and territories) and Delphine Batho (Generation ecology).