With the arrest of the German ship captain of the rescue vessel Sea Watch 3 in Italy (down in Lampedusa).....this has become a top tier news item. I will emphasize that probably a fairly high number of Germans simply don't care and mute the news 'saga' when it comes on.
Yes, Chancellor Merkel did return and tried to talk with the Italian Prime Minister over the issue....urging him to just release the ship captain (German citizen). He responded that there is a separation of power between him and the judicial side. As long as the regional judge over the Lampedusa area is investigating the charges by the prosecution, the ship captain will remain under house arrest.
How serious are the charges? What's generally said by the news media is that she (the ship captain) has been accused of resisting an Italian military ship and it's executive officer. There's also talk of some type of aiding/abetting illegal immigration. There is also some talk of entering Italian territorial water without permission. If the judge sent this on for a real court session and if found guilty on all charges? There's some people who suggest this could add up to ten years of prison. My humble belief is that the Italians want some charge to stick which sends a tough message, and the female captain is going to license her license to pilot for some period of time (maybe six months) and maybe get a year in prison with six months of probation.
If the Italians were to go real tough? The EU would step in and try to resolve this or find some legal EU method to dismiss the harsh terms.
The story-line? Well, in Germany, it's all pro-asylum and leading to donations to the foundation running the rescue vessels.
But the longer this story resides and gets time via public forums....there are questions asked.
There is some virtual small 'box' existing in this area between Libya and Lampedusa....probably 5 x 5 miles, and if you ventured to accomplish a rescue a mile to the left of the circle....by sea law, you'd have to bring the refugees to Tunisia (that's the nearest port area). If you went a mile to the right of the circle, you'd have to bring the refugees to Malta (they have even a bigger issue with asylum-seekers). If you went a mile south of the circle, you'd be obligated by the law of the seas to bring them back to Libya. No one talks much about this 5 x 5 mile 'zone' but if you think about it.....it's designed in some ways to be a pick-up point.
Why not transit on up to Corsica (France) or Palma (Spain) to drop them off? Well, you'd be adding two days of transit onto each drop-off, and you'd eventually encourage right-wing reaction in Spain or France to be triggered.
Could this house-arrest for the ship captain linger for weeks? Yes. No one mentions this, but you could see it lasting a full month.
This being a big political negative for the Italian government? It could charge up the pro-asylum people in Italy, and trigger public debate. However, a fairly large group of Italians don't see asylum as something they want as a national crisis. Add in the unemployment rate, and public sentiment....it doesn't make much sense to bring migrants into Italy....they'd just walk out of the holding centers, and venture north toward Germany.
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