K athrin Schmidt (Berlín, 1983) is aware that she shouldn’t be the main character of this story. As she argues, both European migration policies and the polarising media noise tend to focus on “blond defenders with European passports, while migrants are dying in the Balkan and Mediterranean and nobody wants to see it.”

After the confiscation of the Iuventa rescue ship in August 2017 in the Italian port of Trapani (Sicily), the shadow of prosecution obscured its work: 14,000 people saved from the depths of the Mediterranean sea.

Five years later, in December 2021, four crew members had access to their charges: up to 20-year prison sentences and fines up to 15.000 euros per “illegal” immigrant, according to the anti-mafia law that was applied to the process.

Prosecution

Kathrin Schmidt, head of the Iuventa mission, condemns the great effort put into the prosecution of the rescue ship. As an example of this, she cites the almost 28.000 pages report, the implication of the Italian intelligence services, and the huge media stigmatisation in the summer of 2017, when the prosecution started and the ship remained stranded in the port of Trapani (Sicily, Italy).

Even Mary Lawyor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, asked the Italian government for more information about the situation of the Iuventa crew. On the 8th of October 2020, Lawyor regretted that the criminal processes were still open and the crew was still facing stigmatisation for exercising their humanitarian work in the protection of migrants and asylum seekers at risk in the Mediterranean. In their response on the 30th of November 2020, the Italian governmentreferred explicitly to a “complex technical investigation” that included the interception of the phones of the defendants, as well as computers and similar devices, no matter their country of nationality or residency.

According to Francesca Cancellaro, one of the lawyers of the four Iuventa crew members prosecuted in Italy, 2017 marked a turning point in the solidarity with migrants.

“Simultaneously, Frontex changed its migration policies, Italy started a parliamentary commission on migration, and the prosecution against the Iuventa crew started leading to the confiscation of the ship.” Another feature is the use of the anti-mafia law. “This choice has an impact on both the media and civil society. The anti-mafia law, used against mafia and human trafficking organisations, has a specific connotation and raises a very sensitive issue in Italy.”, Cancellaro explains.

Even so, Kathrin Schmidt seems confident and has never stopped her sea rescue work. “I will not lose a minute of my time”, she explains. “That’s what they want: to keep us busy and worried, so we cannot think of what really matters, which is to save lives.” The defender is now part of the Louise Michel crew, a feminist rescue ship. The fight against time is key in the judicial process. As her lawyer admits, “the legal translation of the acts and documents, aimed at ensuring the right of the defendants who don’t speak Italian to access all the information, has caused great difficulties.”

K athrin Schmidt (Berlín, 1983) is aware that she shouldn’t be the main character of this story. As she argues, both European migration policies and the polarising media noise tend to focus on “blond defenders with European passports, while migrants are dying in the Balkan and Mediterranean and nobody wants to see it.”

After the confiscation of the Iuventa rescue ship in August 2017 in the Italian port of Trapani (Sicily), the shadow of prosecution obscured its work: 14,000 people saved from the depths of the Mediterranean sea.

Five years later, in December 2021, four crew members had access to their charges: up to 20-year prison sentences and fines up to 15.000 euros per “illegal” immigrant, according to the anti-mafia law that was applied to the process.

When third countries are not safe forts: Libya and Tunisia

Mediterranean routes are very risky, as they cross remote lands such as the Sahara desert or Libya, a country where migrants find it very dangerous to live in even temporality, as explained by Sarah Clarke, head of Article 19 for Europe and Central Asia.
As soon as they cross the Mediterranean,men, women, and children are intercepted and pushed-back to detention centres in Libya where their human rights are systematically violated: homicides, torture, rape and sexual abuse, arbitrary detentions for an indefinite period of time in cruel and inhuman conditions, and forced labour. In 2021, Amnesty Internationalcondemned once again the “terrible consequences of the cooperation between Europe and Libya when it comes to border and migration control.”
In Francesca Cancellaro’s words: port, so sending migrants there is an atrocity that shouldn’t be allowed. It is being considered to add Tunisia to the list, which could have enormous legal consequences. Not only is it an atrocity to consider these countries as safe ports, but also to fund them and make them responsible for our migration policies.”

Prosecution

Kathrin Schmidt, head of the Iuventa mission, condemns the great effort put into the prosecution of the rescue ship.As an example of this, she cites the almost 28.000 pages report, the implication of the Italian intelligence services, and the huge media stigmatisation in the summer of 2017, when the prosecution started and the ship remained stranded in the port of Trapani (Sicily, Italy).

Even Mary Lawyor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, asked the Italian government for more information about the situation of the Iuventa crew. On the 8th of October 2020, Lawyor regretted that the criminal processes were still open and the crew was still facing stigmatisation for exercising their humanitarian work in the protection of migrants and asylum seekers at risk in the Mediterranean. In their response on the 30th of November 2020, the Italian governmentreferred explicitly to a “complex technical investigation” that included the interception of the phones of the defendants, as well as computers and similar devices, no matter their country of nationality or residency.
According to Francesca Cancellaro, one of the lawyers of the four Iuventa crew members prosecuted in Italy, 2017 marked a turning point in the solidarity with migrants.

“Simultaneously, Frontex changed its migration policies, Italy started a parliamentary commission on migration, and the prosecution against the Iuventa crew started leading to the confiscation of the ship” Another feature is the use of the anti-mafia law. “This choice has an impact on both the media and civil society. The anti-mafia law, used against mafia and human trafficking organisations, has a specific connotation and raises a very sensitive issue in Italy”, Cancellaro explains.

Even so, Kathrin Schmidt seems confident and has never stopped her sea rescue work. “I will not lose a minute of my time”, she explains. “That’s what they want: to keep us busy and worried, so we cannot think of what really matters, which is to save lives.” The defender is now part of the Louise Michel crew, a feminist rescue ship. The fight against time is key in the judicial process. As her lawyer admits, “the legal translation of the acts and documents, aimed at ensuring the right of the defendants who don’t speak Italian to access all the information, has caused great difficulties.”

We are not heroes

Kathrin thinks twice before every answer. Concise and reliable, her answers are short and clear.“I don’t want to be in front of the camera, but we need to use this opportunity to condemn Europe’s racist migration policies” she explains just a few metres away from the Open Arms¹, Sea Watch ⁴.

Many of the ships that, after the 2015 migration policies crisis, turned into a symbol of the defence of the rights of the people in transit stay in the port of Burriana. “We don’t want to be heroes. In fact, this situation makes our work harder.” Schmidt is aware that narrative is important to shift the attention to the 25,351 people who have disappeared in the Mediterranean from 2014 to 2022.

“I started working on the Balkan route and I come back whenever I can. The Central Mediterranean route carries a strong political charge. It is full of privileged human rights defenders who can do their work and are used by the media and politicians not to talk about what really matters”, she emphasises while waiting to set sail to Turkey in a few days.

Another layer in a racist migration system

To her, prosecuting the people who save lives is just a part of a strategy aimed at shifting attention and avoiding the authorities’ responsibility in asylum and migration matters. “The EU and its member states should respect their own migration laws. Otherwise, they are responsible for the deaths”, she states just a few metres away from the sea. “There are indeed patterns of criminalisation that are repeated, over and over”, she says.

She looks up and explains herself. “There are more bureaucratic obstacles that prevent us from doing our job. Authorities ask for more documents, which we need to double check several times, and they take a long time to reply.”

Since the end of 2021, Schmidt is in charge of the paperwork for the feminist ship. She was worried when this interview took place, in January 2022. The day before, the rescue ship Louise Michel arrived in the Italian port of Lampedusa. They were unable to dock and the crew was getting tired of waiting inside with sixty migrants. “We have to justify all our movements under the fear of being prosecuted to do our job, losing time, money, and energy.”