Since the implementation of the Piantedosi Decree-Law on 2 January 2023, Italian authorities have issued detention orders against 41 humanitarian rescue ships, totaling 1,075 days – almost three years. Italy’s blockade of rescue ships in ports has prevented them from assisting people in distress in the Central Mediterranean, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region. The Justice Fleet, an alliance of 13 search and rescue organizations, considers the law of the far-right Italian government to be a tool that systematically sabotages civil search and rescue operations and endangers the lives of people on the move. Since 2 January 2023, more than 6,490 people have drowned or gone missing on one of the deadliest migration routes in the world, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
In 2026 alone, five civil rescue ships have been detained in ports by the far-right Italian government while more than 825 people have already lost their lives in the Central Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2026, marking the deadliest start of a year since the IOM began tracking dead and missing people in 2014. The Justice Fleet criticises Italian policies obstructing rescue vessels for contributing to the ongoing humanitarian disaster and rising death toll at Europe’s borders.
“It is a scandal that instead of taking action to save people in distress at sea according to their duty under international law, European states choose to keep silent, while the Italian government is escalating the reckless obstruction of non-governmental search and rescue vessels,” says Wasil Schauseil, spokesperson of the Justice Fleet. “The ships of the civil fleet are the only actors providing assistance in the area off the coast of Libya and Tunisia, where most shipwrecks happen. Obstructing their work results in more people dying, plain and simple. We demand that the Piantedosi law be immediately repealed and international law be upheld.”
Under the Piantedosi Law, the far-right Italian government imposes detentions and fines against rescue vessels when allegedly disobeying Italian orders, even when they violate international law or demand cooperation with violent actors such as the so-called Libyan Coastguard. In recent years, Italian courts have repeatedly emphasized the life-saving role of civil search and rescue and clarified that the so-called Libyan Coastguard and the Libyan Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre are not legitimate rescue actors, and that complying with their instructions violates international law. In two detention cases based on the vessels ceasing communication with Libyan authorities, Italian courts have already ruled in their favor.
As part of a new immigration bill implementing the CEAS Regulations, the Italian government under Georgia Meloni is preparing a provision to block NGO ships from entering Italian waters when deemed a “serious threat to public order or national security”. The Justice Fleet warns that such declared states of emergencies have been instrumentalized in the past and might serve to illegitimately block rescue vessels.
In November 2025, 13 search and rescue organisations formed the Justice Fleet alliance, supported by a network of civil society organisations. Their goal is to protect international law by challenging the unlawful detentions of rescue vessels in Italy and Europe’s outsourcing of search and rescue to illegitimate and violent actors in Libya.
Further information
More information on the Justice Fleet can be found here.
A list of extreme acts of violence committed by Libyan militias can be found here.
Contact:
Wasil Schauseil
Justice Fleet spokesperson
+49 30 120821923
info@justice-fleet.org
