Giovanni di Benedetto and Tobia Savoca have decided to organize a citizen gathering in support of Carole Rackete, the captain of the Sea-Watch 3, at the port of Nice (Quai des Docks). Initially planned for Wednesday, July 3rd, it has been postponed to Saturday, July 6th to comply with the legal deadline for declaring the event to the Prefecture and to avoid a ban.
Carola Rackete is a young German woman, captain of the Sea-Watch 3 ship of the Dutch NGO Sea Watch. She was arrested last Friday night upon docking illegally on the Italian island of Lampedusa. On board her ship were 42 exhausted migrants rescued off the Libyan coast. For two weeks, the Sea-Watch 3 had been stranded in international waters because of the blockade imposed by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, and the government’s refusal to allow the migrants to disembark on Italian soil. Last Wednesday, Carola Rackete had already decided to defy the Italian maritime blockade, prompting an investigation by the Agrigento prosecutor’s office (in Sicily) for aiding illegal immigration and disobeying an Italian military ship’s order not to enter Italian territorial waters. The young captain faces up to ten years in prison for having docked illegally while trying to save around forty lives.
On Tuesday evening, Carola Rackete was released after the judge overseeing the preliminary investigation rendered the Italian security decree void in light of the rescue situation. Nevertheless, Matteo Salvini declared that the captain would be subject to expulsion to Germany, which still needs to be confirmed by the judicial authorities.
“We, Italian immigrants living in Nice, call on the people of Nice to gather at a symbolic place, such as the city’s port, to express our solidarity with Captain Carola Rackete and her crew of the Sea-Watch 3, and the humanistic values that underpin their actions.
We, Italian immigrants living in Nice, believe that the Mediterranean is primarily a symbol of unity and that solidarity is inscribed in this Mediterranean identity that great French figures like Albert Camus, Fernand Braudel, and Gabriel Audisio once spoke of,” declare the two organizers of the gathering in a letter.
