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20 September 2020It is stalled in Palermo for the ship of the German NGO Sea Watch.

"The Sea Watch 4 is blocked. For 11 hours, the inspectors searched for the needle in a haystack, and once again found absurd reasons to keep us": The same NGO announced on Twitter.



"With this arbitrary stop - adds the NGO - @guardiacostiera is deliberately putting human lives at risk".

The start of the operation was also reported by Sea Watch and Msf on social media around noon yesterday.



The NGO a few hours before the arrest made it known of a shipwreck in progress yesterday evening off the coast of Garabulli, Libya.

"A fisherman just told us he saved 21 people but had to leave 33 behind, clinging to the remains of the dinghy."

A few hours later the same NGO announced the arrest of the ship by the Italian Coast Guard after 11 hours of inspection. 



"It is not necessary to wait for the outcome of the inspection - they stated - to hypothesize the possibility that the Sea-Watch 4 will be subjected to administrative detention, with the Italian authorities having used these technical controls instrumentally for a year now to block humanitarian ships engaged in rescue at sea ".

And so it was.

Sea Watch 4 is the fifth humanitarian ship to be blocked in five months, "due to technicalities used as a pretext to prevent saving lives at sea," the NGOs say.  



In Lampedusa there were thirteen landings only yesterday, and the guests of the hotspot have risen to 487. A woman gave birth on a small boat just before the intervention of the patrol boat.



đź”´ As expected, the inspection by the maritime authorities on # SeaWatch4 in #Palermo has begun.



“We are presumably facing yet another obvious ending.



We know that it is unlikely to go back to sea now ”



Our press release with @MSF_ITALIA 👇 pic.twitter.com/ydlcrESyfh

- Sea-Watch Italy (@SeaWatchItaly) September 19, 2020