A German boat captain faces a long and costly trial in Italy for charges targeting her humanitarian efforts on behalf of refugees.
"Italy's fascists are using this case as a showcase to deter others from aiding migrants. They would prefer to let people drown in the Mediterranean."
Captain Pia Klemp, 35, told Basler Zeitung on June 7 that her upcoming trial in Italy for years of efforts with the civilian lifeboat "Iuventa" that saved at least 1,000 lives will take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Klemp faces up to 20 years in prison, but, she said, whether or not she ends up in jail—she would challenge any conviction in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France if necessary—the damage has been done.
"The worst has already come to pass," said Klemp. "Sea rescue missions have been criminalized."
Pia Klemp, a German biologist & boat captain faces 20 yrs in prison for rescuing 1,000+ migrants at risk of drowning whilst crossing the Mediterranean. Seeking asylum is a human right. Only 1 in 100 sea captains are female. This woman is a humanitarian, not a criminal. #FreePia pic.twitter.com/VPgacPUfco — Vivian Angrisani (@VivianAngrisani) June 8, 2019
Along with helping refugees, Klemp works with ocean conservation group Sea Watch.
The Italian charges against Klemp come as part of an anti-immigration crackdown by far-right Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who ran on imposing harsh penalties on refugees.
"Italy's fascists are using this case as a showcase to deter others from aiding migrants," journalist Rula Jebreal said on Twitter. "They would prefer to let people drown in the Mediterranean."
Klemp is banned from sailing along the Italian coast due to her activism in favor of refugees. In her comments to Basler Zeitung, Klemp addressed the notion that sea rescues like the ones she did are in any way motivating for refugees to come to Europe.
"People come because unfortunately there are so many reasons for flight," said Klemp. "And they come over the Mediterranean, because there are no legal entry routes."
Commentators on social media noted that Klemp's actions in the Mediterranean were in keeping with the U.N.'s policies on rescues at sea and the humanitarian duties of a ship captain.
Klemp would have been in violation of the U.N. Law of the Sea (pdf) if she didn't help migrants, pointed out Twitter user lifelearner47.
Article 98 1982 UN Law of the Sea:
Every State shall require the master of ship flying its flag
(a) to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being losthttps://t.co/S00zQ52x39 German boat captain Pia Klemp faces prison in Italy for migrant rescues — Angie Fay bending that curve (⧖) (@lifelearner47) June 10, 2019
"We have only followed international law, especially the law of the sea, where the highest priority is to save people from distress," she told Basler Zeitung.
Her activism was put into historical context by Peter Scott Smith, son of famed World War II vet Harry Leslie Smith.
"In another era, Pia Klemp would have saved Jews from extermination," tweeted Smith. "That she faces 20 years in jail in 2019 for saving refugees lost at sea, indicts the EU for hypocrisy and abetting crimes against humanity for allowing Italy to conduct a show trial."
A petition on Change.org calling for the charges to be dropped has already received over 77,000 signatures.
Klemp told Basler Zeitung that she hopes the trial is over quickly—the captain has been working full time on the case.
"The sea is the most beautiful place for me," said Klemp.
"Every sunset is great, if you accompany dolphins or the water looks like it's cooking because you accidentally picked up a tuna swarm," she added. "Just that way of being away from the sound, from the many, from everything."
cake_flattener1 on June 12nd, 2019 at 05:43 UTC »
Worth pointing out, again, that the reason she is facing prison is not for "saving people from distress" or following the law of the sea, but because there is ample photographic evidence of her ship, the Iuventa, meeting with perfectly-afloat trafficker ships and loading up passengers, after which the traffickers returned to Libya.
I'm sure some people still think that is somehow praiseworthy humanitarianism, but it does mean the article, and coverage like it, is built on outright lies.
FaysRedditAccount on June 12nd, 2019 at 04:36 UTC »
I should probably preface this with the fact that I think sea rescue is important and should probably have strong legal protections as the safety of people should always be put ahead of petty politics.
that said this article is absolute drivel. it fails to answer even the most basic questions the reader might have and the few scraps of information it contains have been put through the spin cycle on high. who is this woman? what is she doing on a boat? is she going out specifically looking for rafts of refugees or is it a commercial boat and she just runs into a lot of rafts? 1000 people is quite a few, where is she picking these people up? wouldn't going out and scooping up rafts fall under the purview of the Italian coast guard? what is the legal argument against her? does it have merit? after reading this the only thing I'm confident in is that the author believes she's done nothing wrong. this is more of a pet peeve than a legitimate criticism, but when ever a writer says "one twitter user wrote" I mentally replace it with "local homeless man yelled at bird" because they're about as authoritative
EDIT: Thanks for the gold and silver kind strangers
god_im_bored on June 12nd, 2019 at 03:11 UTC »
This whole conversation is unsavory as everyone is trying to turn it into an absolute argument about migration. It’s completely acceptable to be critical of this lady who decided to ferry people from the shores of Libya all the way to Italy (https://m.imgur.com/KJuwiaK) thereby potentially assisting traffickers while also being critical of several EU states (including Italy) that had abolished the original task force that was sent to arrest traffickers because they were also saving migrants from drowning (source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/eu-recalls-ships-helping-mediterranean-refugee-rescues-190327135258098.html)
It isn’t one way or the other.
PS - this comment chain is everything wrong with the conversation surrounding this issue.
PS 2 - Wtf is a locked comment and why don't I get the right to also lock my comment and prevent people from commenting against my views so I can get the last say?