Saving lives is not a crime

Representatives of German rescue organization Sea-Watch accused the European Union of hypocrisy over its support for Carola Rackete, the captain of their ship, Sea-Watch 3 . Sea-Watch said that the German government and other EU states should carry "just as much" blame for the 16-day standoff Lampedusa as right-wing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has imposed Italy's hard-line stance.

"It is truly, truly shameful," spokesperson Ruben Neugebauer told reporters , pointing out that Italy had closed its ports to humanitarian rescue vessels a year ago, causing several standoffs with local authorities. "Since then, the European Union and the German government have had time to find a solution to the situation, but they always find a way to talk themselves out of it," he said. "They're very good at making excuses, pointing the finger at others … and saying 'we need a European solution.'" He added "This is a continent of more than 500 million people, who for over two weeks cannot manage to distribute 50 refugees across the continent. It's absurd. But it's not just a lack of will; our impression is that the signal that these standoffs have is deliberate."

Sea-Watch praised the initiative taken by over 60 German towns and local councils, who have offered to take in the 53 refugees that Sea-Watch 3 rescued. This shows "what solidarity looks like," said Neugebauer.

Several rescue organizations have complained in recent months that European countries are obstructing their work. The legal crackdown on rescue organizations (Italy is threatening Rackete with 10 years in prison and a fine) has prevented ships from rescuing people in stricken vessels attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, Neugebauer said. The effect of standoffs such as the one over Sea-Watch 3, the organization argued, was that trading ships and fishermen who happen to see stricken vessels carrying migrants "think twice" before rescuing them.

Sea-Watch says that the EU's current strategy against human traffickers (supporting the Libyan coastguard to stop boats leaving its shores), actually ends up financing traffickers. According to the organization, Libya's coastguards are run by the country's militias, who in some cases also operate people-smuggling networks. A Human Rights Watch report from January this year also said that "EU policies contribute to the abuse of migrants in Libya."

Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League Party, has threatened to use any means necessary to prevent vessels rescuing migrants off the coast of Libya from entering Italy. He has accused them of human trafficking.

"If anything is human trafficking, then surely it's paying militias to pick up people from the open sea and taking them back to a country where they're threatened with persecution or slavery, or rape or torture, in complete violation of the UN convention on refugees," said Sea-Watch spokesperson Chris Grodotzki.

While in the USA humanitarian helpers face their own problems. Amnesty International's Brian Griffey explained that “What we have found is that the central human rights violation from American authorities has been the targeting for unlawful restrictions of people defending migrants' rights, based on their political opinions. It's highly concerning to see that these individuals, who put themselves between the abuse of government officials and the people who are having their rights violated, become themselves the new primary target for human rights violations...The contempt that US authorities are showing for lawyers, journalists, activists and humanitarian volunteers is not just a contempt for those individuals, it's a contempt for the rule of law, a contempt for the judiciary and a contempt for the constitutional guarantee for freedom of speech.”

The government will retry Scott Warren, a volunteer for No More Deaths, a faith-based group providing water, food and medical aid to migrants in the harsh deserts of southern Arizona,  on two counts of harbouring migrants, said Glenn McCormick, a spokesman for the US Attorney's office in Tucson. The initial trial had been expected to set a precedent on what aid US citizens can legally give undocumented migrants after the Trump administration urged federal prosecutors to crack down on people found sheltering them. The retrial highlights just how far the Trump administration is willing to go to punish migrants and those who provide them with life-saving assistance

More than 3,000 undocumented migrants have died since 2001 trying to cross a stretch of land where temperatures can exceed 115F (46C).  US Border Patrol agents destroy water supplies the group left for migrants.

The Trump administration's targeting of human rights defenders through discriminatory misuse of the criminal justice system sets it on a slippery slope toward authoritarianism," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty's Americas director. "The US government is disgracing itself by threatening and even prosecuting its own citizens for their vital work to save the lives of people in a desperate situation at the border," she said in a statement.