GERMANY: Germany has demanded that Italy release the captain of a German aid ship and the head of a humanitarian aid group who were arrested after delivering 37 African shipwreck survivors to Sicily.
In what threatened to spark a diplomatic row, Italian police on Monday arrested the head of the Cap Anamur aid group, Mr Elias Bierdel, as well as the captain of the ship Cap Anamur and a crew member on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.
They were detained and the boat was impounded after Italy allowed Cap Anamur to dock and the shipwreck survivors to disembark following a near three-week standoff.
Germany yesterday demanded their immediate release.
"It cannot be accepted that Elias Bierdel should be punished because he wanted to help people who came upon big hardship," Development Minister Ms Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said.
Berlin said it was in contact with Italy's foreign ministry and had sent a diplomat to Sicily to look into the situation.
Cap Anamur says it rescued the Africans from a rubber dinghy with engine failure drifting in the Mediterranean, but Mr Bierdel said shortly before his arrest that he had made mistakes.
"We believe that ultimately everything is based on misunderstandings. We have made mistakes too, we have to admit," he told Radio Vatican.
Italy initially refused to let the ship dock, saying the Africans were closer to Malta than Italy when they were picked up and should therefore have applied for asylum there.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants land on Italy's shores every year, many of them planning to continue on to other European Union countries.
Italy's opposition also condemned the arrest and the transfer of the Africans to illegal immigrant centres.
"Every minute this issue is increasingly taking the shape of an international scandal," Mr Alfonso Pecoraro, head of the Green party, told reporters. "You can't confuse those who help refugees with those who trade in human beings," he said.
The interior ministry suggested at the weekend that it suspected someone aimed to profit from the situation.
"It is no mystery to anyone that international law, democratic order and even the most elemental principles of human solidarity are used by ruthless criminals that earn billions of euros a year by exploiting illegal immigration and human trafficking," the ministry said in a statement.
Confusion over the men's nationality has fuelled suspicions.Italian officials were initially told they were Sudanese asylum-seekers but after they disembarked, police said they appeared to be from Ghana and Nigeria.
The United Nations refugee agency yesterday welcomed the Italian government's decision to allow the men to disembark and requested access to the Africans, some of whom had filed asylum claims while still on board.
"The problem in this case is ... it appears that the normal search and rescue procedures were not activated by the boat and that perhaps lies at the heart of quite a few of the difficulties that have arisen," a UN spokesman said. - (Reuters)