On Now
Weekdays 12:00 - 15:00
At Lunch Pulane
NEXT: 15:00 - 18:00 The Joyride with Nico, Nikki, Kayla and JayBee
Listen Live Streams

Africa News

German captain of refugee rescue boat in court

───   09:58 Tue, 03 Jul 2018

German captain of refugee rescue boat in court | News Article
Claus-Peter Reisch PHOTO: DW.com

Claus-Peter Reisch’s, the German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he entered Malta’s waters illegally and without proper registration, AP reported.


Reisch accused European countries of accepting the deaths of migrants "for political reasons."

At the arraignment in Malta’s nation’s capital, Valletta, prosecutors also asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the vessel he directed to Malta, the Lifeline. 

The boat’s crew picked up 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month.

DW.com reports the German government has offered Reisch diplomatic aid during the process.

German comedian Jan Böhmermann has also offered his support, calling on people to donate money to a crowdfunding site to help finance Reisch's legal costs.

"In the first 3 days, more than 4,000 fans of the rule of law pooled together €83,000 [$97,000] for the [legal] defence and other legal costs for the Mission Lifeline team!" he wrote on Twitter.


Anti-migrant backlash


Lifeline was the second migrant rescue ship to be refused docking rights in June. At the beginning of the month, the Aquarius, a French ship with more than 630 migrants on board, was forced to dock in Spain after Italy and Malta refused to grant it entry.

Mission Lifeline spokesman Ruben Neugebauer at the time claimed that Maltese threats to take legal action against Reisch constituted "part of the criminalization of NGO activities" by European governments.


African News Agency (ANA) and DW.com

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.