VALLETTA, July 2 — For the second time in a week, Malta today detained a humanitarian vessel that normally rescues boat migrants off the coast of Libya, where two shipwrecks have claimed the lives of as many as 200 people in recent days.

The Sea Watch 3 vessel, operated by a German charity, requested to leave port after undergoing maintenance and the port authority refused, a Sea Watch spokeswoman said. The port authorities said only that the vessel’s status was under review.

Another humanitarian ship, Lifeline, was detained last week after Malta for the first time in years opened its port to a large number of migrants, some 230, when Italy refused it safe haven. A new Italian government including the League, a far right anti-immigrant party, took power last month and has shut Italian ports to charity ships carrying migrants.

Lifeline’s captain attended a court hearing in Malta on Monday in which the prosecutor said the ship was not properly registered. The groups operating both ships deny any wrongdoing.

“They are creating the conditions to make it impossible for non-governmental groups to operate at sea,” Sea Watch’s Giorgia Linardi said. “Against this background, people are dying and no one seems to care.”

In two separate incidents, as many as 204 migrants have drowned since Friday after being packed into unsafe vessels by smugglers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. The incidents raised the toll for this year above 1,000 people lost at sea.

The humanitarian groups say they are being wrongly targeted by governments—Malta and Italy—that are seeking to stem migrant arrivals to Europe, and they say the policy spearheaded by the new Italian government is causing deaths.

Italy’s far-right interior minister says the rescue ships are colluding with Libyan smugglers, a charge never proven in court and denied by the rescuers. Malta said last week it would no longer provide logistical support to the vessels under the suspicion they were acting illegally.

The flow of migrants into Europe has abated since a 2015 peak, with the number attempting the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Italy falling to tens of thousands from hundreds of thousands. The other main route, from Turkey to Greece, used by more than a million people in 2015, was shut two years ago.

But the journey by land through the Sahara and then across the Mediterranean remains world’s deadliest migration route, and as polarising as ever in European politics. In addition to Italy, anti-immigrant parties are now firmly entrenched in the ex-Communist states of central Europe and won seats in the German parliament for the first time since the 1940s last year.

In Germany, the issue threatens to bring down Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.

A humanitarian boat run by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is heading for Spain carrying 59 migrants after Italy and Malta refused it a port, the third such case in less than a month.

During a hearing on Monday, Malta police inspector Mario Haber questioned whether the Lifeline ship, which says it operates under a Dutch flag, should have been registered as a yacht instead of a commercial vessel.

“The yacht is not registered with the Netherlands. It is registered with a Dutch yacht club but it isn’t the flag state,” Haber said. The court appointed “experts” to board the ship and inspect its contents, including its computers, with the prosecution saying it could not rule out charges.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud set bail at 10,000 euros for Lifeline captain Claus-Peter Reisch, adding that he must stay on his ship and cannot leave the small island state. Another hearing will be held on Thursday.

“What kind of world are we living in when sea rescuers are criminalised?” Reisch said in a statement before the hearing. — Reuters</s>VALLETTA: For the second time in a week, Malta on Monday detained a humanitarian vessel that normally rescues boat migrants off the coast of Libya, where two shipwrecks have claimed the lives of as many as 200 people in recent days.

The Sea Watch 3 vessel, operated by a German charity, requested to leave port after undergoing maintenance and the port authority refused, a Sea Watch spokeswoman said. The port authorities said only that the vessel's status was under review.

Another humanitarian ship, Lifeline, was detained last week after Malta for the first time in years opened its port to a large number of migrants, some 230, when Italy refused it safe haven. A new Italian government including the League, a far right anti-immigrant party, took power last month and has shut Italian ports to charity ships carrying migrants.

Lifeline's captain attended a court hearing in Malta on Monday in which the prosecutor said the ship was not properly registered. The groups operating both ships deny any wrongdoing.

"They are creating the conditions to make it impossible for non-governmental groups to operate at sea," Sea Watch's Giorgia Linardi said. "Against this background, people are dying and no one seems to care."

In two separate incidents, as many as 204 migrants have drowned since Friday after being packed into unsafe vessels by smugglers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. The incidents raised the toll for this year above 1,000 people lost at sea.

The humanitarian groups say they are being wrongly targeted by governments - Malta and Italy - that are seeking to stem migrant arrivals to Europe, and they say the policy spearheaded by the new Italian government is causing deaths.

Italy's far-right interior minister says the rescue ships are colluding with Libyan smugglers, a charge never proven in court and denied by the rescuers. Malta said last week it would no longer provide logistical support to the vessels under the suspicion they were acting illegally.

The flow of migrants into Europe has abated since a 2015 peak, with the number attempting the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Italy falling to tens of thousands from hundreds of thousands. The other main route, from Turkey to Greece, used by more than a million people in 2015, was shut two years ago.

But the journey by land through the Sahara and then across the Mediterranean remains world's deadliest migration route, and as polarising as ever in European politics. In addition to Italy, anti-immigrant parties are now firmly entrenched in the ex-Communist states of central Europe and won seats in the German parliament for the first time since the 1940s last year.

In Germany, the issue threatens to bring down Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.

A humanitarian boat run by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is heading for Spain carrying 59 migrants after Italy and Malta refused it a port, the third such case in less than a month.

During a hearing on Monday, Malta police inspector Mario Haber questioned whether the Lifeline ship, which says it operates under a Dutch flag, should have been registered as a yacht instead of a commercial vessel.

"The yacht is not registered with the Netherlands. It is registered with a Dutch yacht club but it isn't the flag state," Haber said. The court appointed "experts" to board the ship and inspect its contents, including its computers, with the prosecution saying it could not rule out charges.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud set bail at 10,000 euros for Lifeline captain Claus-Peter Reisch, adding that he must stay on his ship and cannot leave the small island state. Another hearing will be held on Thursday.

"What kind of world are we living in when sea rescuers are criminalised?" Reisch said in a statement before the hearing.</s>VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he entered Malta's waters illegally and without proper registration, a case that reflects Europe's heightened determination to keep asylum-seekers from reaching the continent.

At Claus-Peter Reisch's arraignment in the island nation's capital, Valletta, prosecutors also asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the vessel he directed to Malta, the Lifeline. The boat's crew picked up 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month.

The destination of the rescued passengers became the subject of a dispute among European nations. Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor, but only after Italy and seven other nations, in addition to Malta, pledged to each take some of the migrants.

Several hundred thousand migrants have arrived in Italy after being rescued at sea in recent years, many of them ferried to shore by private rescue boats. The right-wing interior minister in Italy's new, populist government, Matteo Salvini, has vowed that no more such vessels will dock in Italian ports.

The Lifeline, which was operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, was the second aid boat caught in the Italian crackdown.

On Saturday, a third ship, Open Arms, run by a Spanish aid group, plucked 60 migrants to safety from a dinghy launched by Libya-based human traffickers. Italy and Malta traded jabs about which of the two countries should let Open Arms dock.

In the end, Spain agreed to let the vessel dock in Barcelona. The Open Arms was south of the Italian island of Sardinia Monday, some 300 nautical miles from its destination.

The aid groups say they are determined to save lives.

"We did the right thing," Lifeline Captain Claus-Peter Reisch after the arraignment, where his bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600) and he was ordered to surrender his passport and to report to a police station weekly.

The 57-year-old German was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

If convicted, he could be fined and sentenced to up to 12 months in jail.

Defense lawyer Cedric Mifsud told reporters this his client and the Lifeline appeared to be a "scapegoat" for the squabbling among European Union countries over how to manage the flood of migrants to Europe's southern shores.

"What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU's borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing," Mifsud said.

He added that supporters of the rescue ship's crew "we suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at (the) Brussels level that borders need to be closed."

While tiny Malta has taken in relatively few rescued migrants in the last few years, aid group vessels have taken advantage of the tiny island nation's strategic location between Sicily and Libya to make port calls for fresh supplies or crews.

But the Maltese government declared last week was closing its ports to all humanitarian rescue ships pending the outcome of its investigation of the Lifeline. Officials have said they want to determine if aid groups operate the ships according to national and international laws.

Some members of Lifeline's crew turned up at Valletta's courthouse wearing T-shirts printed with "Save Lives." They held a white sheet emblazoned with the phrase, "Rescue ships blocked. More than 400 dead," outside the courthouse.

The phrase apparently referred to the many migrants who are believed to have drowned in recent days off Libya. Italy and its EU partners have maintained it's the job of the Libyan coast guard to perform rescues in its search-and-rescue area.

Private aid groups contended that lives were lost because their rescue boats either aren't at sea due to legal woes like the Lifeline's or because Italy's coast guard says those rescues are Libya's responsibility.

The Libyan coast guard, already given training, motorboats and equipment from Italy, says it needs more aid to properly save lives.</s>VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he entered Malta's waters illegally and without proper registration, a case that reflects Europe's heightened determination to keep asylum-seekers from reaching the continent.

At Claus-Peter Reisch's arraignment in the island nation's capital, Valletta, prosecutors also asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the vessel he directed to Malta, the Lifeline. The boat's crew picked up 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month.

The destination of the rescued passengers became the subject of a dispute among European nations. Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor, but only after Italy and seven other nations, in addition to Malta, pledged to each take some of the migrants.

Several hundred thousand migrants have arrived in Italy after being rescued at sea in recent years, many of them ferried to shore by private rescue boats. The right-wing interior minister in Italy's new, populist government, Matteo Salvini, has vowed that no more such vessels will dock in Italian ports.

The Lifeline, which was operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, was the second aid boat caught in the Italian crackdown.

On Saturday, a third ship, Open Arms, run by a Spanish aid group, plucked 60 migrants to safety from a dinghy launched by Libya-based human traffickers. Italy and Malta traded jabs about which of the two countries should let Open Arms dock.

In the end, Spain agreed to let the vessel dock in Barcelona. The Open Arms was south of the Italian island of Sardinia Monday, some 300 nautical miles from its destination.

The aid groups say they are determined to save lives.

"We did the right thing," Lifeline Captain Claus-Peter Reisch after the arraignment, where his bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600) and he was ordered to surrender his passport and to report to a police station weekly.

The 57-year-old German was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

If convicted, he could be fined and sentenced to up to 12 months in jail.

"I don't think I have done anything unlawful. I saved 234 lives and assisted in two other rescue operations" with Mission Lifeline, Reisch said.

"Out at sea, women, men and children are dying. I didn't see the pictures of drowned bodies in the newspaper. I saw it with my own eyes," he added. "So when politicians say this should be stopped, maybe they should join us for one trip."

Defense lawyer Cedric Mifsud told reporters this his client and the Lifeline appeared to be a "scapegoat" for the squabbling among European Union countries over how to manage the flood of migrants to Europe's southern shores.

"What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU's borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing," Mifsud said.

He added that supporters of the rescue ship's crew "we suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at (the) Brussels level that borders need to be closed."

While tiny Malta has taken in relatively few rescued migrants in the last few years, aid group vessels have taken advantage of the tiny island nation's strategic location between Sicily and Libya to make port calls for fresh supplies or crews.

But the Maltese government declared last week was closing its ports to all humanitarian rescue ships pending the outcome of its investigation of the Lifeline. Officials have said they want to determine if aid groups operate the ships according to national and international laws.

Some members of Lifeline's crew turned up at Valletta's courthouse wearing T-shirts printed with "Save Lives." They held a white sheet emblazoned with the phrase, "Rescue ships blocked. More than 400 dead," outside the courthouse.

The phrase apparently referred to the many migrants who are believed to have drowned in recent days off Libya. Italy and its EU partners have maintained it's the job of the Libyan coast guard to perform rescues in its search-and-rescue area.

Private aid groups contended that lives were lost because their rescue boats either aren't at sea due to legal woes like the Lifeline's or because Italy's coast guard says those rescues are Libya's responsibility.

The Libyan coast guard, already given training, motorboats and equipment from Italy, says it needs more aid to properly save lives.

In comments to journalists, Reisch, the Lifeline's captain, questioned the Libyan coast guard's competence and professionalism. "Their ships are carrying neither lifejackets nor medical containers" (kits).</s>The German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea pleaded innocent on Monday to charges that he entered Malta's waters illegally and without proper boat registration.

At an arraignment hearing in the island nation's capital, Valletta, Maltese prosecutors asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the vessel Lifeline. The boat's crew picked up 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month.

The destination of the rescued passengers became the subject of a dispute among European nations. Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor, but only after Italy and seven other nations agreed to each take some of the migrants.

Several hundred thousand migrants have arrived in Italy after sea rescue in recent years, and its new government refused to let the Lifeline dock. Maltese officials also launched an investigation to determine if the ship's crew violated maritime laws.

"We did the right thing," Lifeline Captain Claus-Peter Reisch after the arraignment, where his bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600) and he was ordered to surrender his passport and to report to a police station weekly.

The 57-year-old German was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

Defense lawyer Cedric Mifsud told reporters this his client and Lifeline appeared to be a "scapegoat" for a wider squabbling by European Union countries over how to manage the flood of migrants to Europe's southern shores.

"What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU's borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing," Mifsud said.

As for Malta, he added: "we suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at (the) Brussels level, that borders need to be closed and that Europe will not tolerate NGOs rescuing refugees out at sea."

Some members of Lifeline's crew turned up at the court wearing T-shirts bearing the word "Save Lives." A white sheet emblazoned with the phrase, "Rescue ships blocked 400 dead" was held outside the courthouse.

The phrase apparently referred to the many migrants who are believed to have drowned in recent days off Libya. Italy and its EU partners say the Libyan coast guard should carry out rescues in its search-and-rescue area. Private aid groups have contended lives were lost because their rescue boat ships either aren't at sea, due to legal woes, like that of the Lifeline, or because Italy's coast guard says those rescues are Libya's responsibility.

The Libyan coast guard itself, already given training and equipment from Italy, says it needs more aid to properly save lives.

Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, deputy premier in the government, leads an anti-migrant party. Many in his base associate migrants with crime. He has vowed to let no more aid groups' rescue vessels dock in Italy.</s>Crew members of NGO Sea-Watch protest outside the Courts of Justice during the arraignment of Claus-Peter Reisch, the captain of the charity ship MV Lifeline in Valletta Thomson Reuters By Chris Scicluna

VALLETTA (Reuters) - For the second time in a week, Malta on Monday detained a humanitarian vessel that normally rescues boat migrants off the coast of Libya, where two shipwrecks have claimed the lives of as many as 200 people in recent days.

The Sea Watch 3 vessel, operated by a German charity, requested to leave port after undergoing maintenance and the port authority refused, a Sea Watch spokeswoman said. The port authorities said only that the vessel's status was under review.

Another humanitarian ship, Lifeline, was detained last week after Malta for the first time in years opened its port to a large number of migrants, some 230, when Italy refused it safe haven. A new Italian government including the League, a far right anti-immigrant party, took power last month and has shut Italian ports to charity ships carrying migrants.

Lifeline's captain attended a court hearing in Malta on Monday in which the prosecutor said the ship was not properly registered. The groups operating both ships deny any wrongdoing.

"They are creating the conditions to make it impossible for non-governmental groups to operate at sea," Sea Watch's Giorgia Linardi said. "Against this background, people are dying and no one seems to care."

In two separate incidents, as many as 204 migrants have drowned since Friday after being packed into unsafe vessels by smugglers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. The incidents raised the toll for this year above 1,000 people lost at sea.

The humanitarian groups say they are being wrongly targeted by governments -- Malta and Italy -- that are seeking to stem migrant arrivals to Europe, and they say the policy spearheaded by the new Italian government is causing deaths.

Italy's far-right interior minister says the rescue ships are colluding with Libyan smugglers, a charge never proven in court and denied by the rescuers. Malta said last week it would no longer provide logistical support to the vessels under the suspicion they were acting illegally.

The flow of migrants into Europe has abated since a 2015 peak, with the number attempting the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Italy falling to tens of thousands from hundreds of thousands. The other main route, from Turkey to Greece, used by more than a million people in 2015, was shut two years ago.

But the journey by land through the Sahara and then across the Mediterranean remains world's deadliest migration route, and as polarizing as ever in European politics. In addition to Italy, anti-immigrant parties are now firmly entrenched in the ex-Communist states of central Europe and won seats in the German parliament for the first time since the 1940s last year.

In Germany, the issue threatens to bring down Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.

A humanitarian boat run by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is heading for Spain carrying 59 migrants after Italy and Malta refused it a port, the third such case in less than a month.

During a hearing on Monday, Malta police inspector Mario Haber questioned whether the Lifeline ship, which says it operates under a Dutch flag, should have been registered as a yacht instead of a commercial vessel.

"The yacht is not registered with the Netherlands. It is registered with a Dutch yacht club but it isn't the flag state," Haber said. The court appointed "experts" to board the ship and inspect its contents, including its computers, with the prosecution saying it could not rule out charges.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud set bail at 10,000 euros for Lifeline captain Claus-Peter Reisch, adding that he must stay on his ship and cannot leave the small island state. Another hearing will be held on Thursday.

"What kind of world are we living in when sea rescuers are criminalized?" Reisch said in a statement before the hearing.</s>VALLETTA, Malta — Maltese prosecutors have asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of a migrant rescue ship run by a German aid group.

The German captain of the Lifeline appeared at an arraignment session Monday in Valletta, Malta.

Claus-Peter Reisch, 57, was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

The Lifeline rescued 234 migrants in waters off Libya, and Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor after diplomatic wrangling and eight other nations agreed to take some of the rescued.

Bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600). The captain was ordered to deposit his passport in court and sign in at a police station weekly.

Italy had refused to let the Lifeline dock.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he entered Malta's waters illegally and without proper registration, a case that reflects Europe's heightened determination to keep asylum-seekers from reaching the continent.

At Claus-Peter Reisch's arraignment in the island nation's capital, Valletta, prosecutors also asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the vessel he directed to Malta, the Lifeline. The boat's crew picked up 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month.

The destination of the rescued passengers became the subject of a dispute among European nations. Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor, but only after Italy and seven other nations, in addition to Malta, pledged to each take some of the migrants.

Several hundred thousand migrants have arrived in Italy after being rescued at sea in recent years, many of them ferried to shore by private rescue boats. The right-wing interior minister in Italy's new, populist government, Matteo Salvini, has vowed that no more such vessels will dock in Italian ports.

The Lifeline, which was operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, was the second aid boat caught in the Italian crackdown.

On Saturday, a third ship, Open Arms, run by a Spanish aid group, plucked 60 migrants to safety from a dinghy launched by Libya-based human traffickers. Italy and Malta traded jabs about which of the two countries should let Open Arms dock.

In the end, Spain agreed to let the vessel dock in Barcelona. The Open Arms was south of the Italian island of Sardinia Monday, some 300 nautical miles from its destination.

The aid groups say they are determined to save lives.

"We did the right thing," Lifeline Captain Claus-Peter Reisch after the arraignment, where his bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600) and he was ordered to surrender his passport and to report to a police station weekly.

The 57-year-old German was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

If convicted, he could be fined and sentenced to up to 12 months in jail.

"I don't think I have done anything unlawful. I saved 234 lives and assisted in two other rescue operations" with Mission Lifeline, Reisch said.

"Out at sea, women, men and children are dying. I didn't see the pictures of drowned bodies in the newspaper. I saw it with my own eyes," he added. "So when politicians say this should be stopped, maybe they should join us for one trip."

Defense lawyer Cedric Mifsud told reporters this his client and the Lifeline appeared to be a "scapegoat" for the squabbling among European Union countries over how to manage the flood of migrants to Europe's southern shores.

"What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU's borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing," Mifsud said.

He added that supporters of the rescue ship's crew "we suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at (the) Brussels level that borders need to be closed."

While tiny Malta has taken in relatively few rescued migrants in the last few years, aid group vessels have taken advantage of the tiny island nation's strategic location between Sicily and Libya to make port calls for fresh supplies or crews.

But the Maltese government declared last week was closing its ports to all humanitarian rescue ships pending the outcome of its investigation of the Lifeline. Officials have said they want to determine if aid groups operate the ships according to national and international laws.

Some members of Lifeline's crew turned up at Valletta's courthouse wearing T-shirts printed with "Save Lives." They held a white sheet emblazoned with the phrase, "Rescue ships blocked. More than 400 dead," outside the courthouse.

The phrase apparently referred to the many migrants who are believed to have drowned in recent days off Libya. Italy and its EU partners have maintained it's the job of the Libyan coast guard to perform rescues in its search-and-rescue area.

Private aid groups contended that lives were lost because their rescue boats either aren't at sea due to legal woes like the Lifeline's or because Italy's coast guard says those rescues are Libya's responsibility.

The Libyan coast guard, already given training, motorboats and equipment from Italy, says it needs more aid to properly save lives.

In comments to journalists, Reisch, the Lifeline's captain, questioned the Libyan coast guard's competence and professionalism. "Their ships are carrying neither lifejackets nor medical containers" (kits).</s>For the second time in a week, Malta on Monday detained a humanitarian vessel that normally rescues boat migrants off the coast of Libya, where two shipwrecks have claimed the lives of as many as 200 people in recent days.

The Sea Watch 3 vessel, operated by a German charity, requested to leave port after undergoing maintenance and the port authority refused, a Sea Watch spokeswoman said. The port authorities said only that the vessel's status was under review.

Another humanitarian ship, Lifeline, was detained last week after Malta for the first time in years opened its port to a large number of migrants, some 230, when Italy refused it safe haven. A new Italian government including the League, a far right anti-immigrant party, took power last month and has shut Italian ports to charity ships carrying migrants.

Lifeline's captain attended a court hearing in Malta on Monday in which the prosecutor said the ship was not properly registered. The groups operating both ships deny any wrongdoing.

"They are creating the conditions to make it impossible for non-governmental groups to operate at sea," Sea Watch's Giorgia Linardi said. "Against this background, people are dying and no one seems to care."

In two separate incidents, as many as 204 migrants have drowned since Friday after being packed into unsafe vessels by smugglers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. The incidents raised the toll for this year above 1,000 people lost at sea.

The humanitarian groups say they are being wrongly targeted by governments — Malta and Italy — that are seeking to stem migrant arrivals to Europe, and they say the policy spearheaded by the new Italian government is causing deaths.

Italy's far-right interior minister says the rescue ships are colluding with Libyan smugglers, a charge never proven in court and denied by the rescuers. Malta said last week it would no longer provide logistical support to the vessels under the suspicion they were acting illegally.

The flow of migrants into Europe has abated since a 2015 peak, with the number attempting the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Italy falling to tens of thousands from hundreds of thousands. The other main route, from Turkey to Greece, used by more than a million people in 2015, was shut two years ago.

But the journey by land through the Sahara and then across the Mediterranean remains world's deadliest migration route, and as polarising as ever in European politics. In addition to Italy, anti-immigrant parties are now firmly entrenched in the ex-Communist states of central Europe and won seats in the German parliament for the first time since the 1940s last year.

In Germany, the issue threatens to bring down Angela Merkel's ruling coalition.

A humanitarian boat run by Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is heading for Spain carrying 59 migrants after Italy and Malta refused it a port, the third such case in less than a month.

During a hearing on Monday, Malta police inspector Mario Haber questioned whether the Lifeline ship, which says it operates under a Dutch flag, should have been registered as a yacht instead of a commercial vessel.

"The yacht is not registered with the Netherlands. It is registered with a Dutch yacht club but it isn't the flag state," Haber said. The court appointed "experts" to board the ship and inspect its contents, including its computers, with the prosecution saying it could not rule out charges.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud set bail at 10,000 euros for Lifeline captain Claus-Peter Reisch, adding that he must stay on his ship and cannot leave the small island state. Another hearing will be held on Thursday.

"What kind of world are we living in when sea rescuers are criminalised?" Reisch said in a statement before the hearing.

Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty</s>Spain: 160 more migrants recued in Strait of Gibraltar

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The Latest on Europe's response to mass migration: (all times local):

Spain's Maritime Rescue Service says it has rescued another 109 people from the Mediterranean Sea as they tried to reach the country's southern coasts from North Africa.

The rescue service said a crew encountered one vessel in the western part of the Strait of Gibraltar on Monday with 52 migrants on board, while a second one carried 49.

A different rescue boat picked up eight people from a dinghy found further east.

The service reported on Sunday that 160 people were rescued from five boats.

The number of people reaching Europe by the so-called Western Mediterranean land and sea route to Spain has surpassed the number arriving to Italy by boat this year.

The German captain of a private ship that rescues migrants has pleaded innocent to charges he entered Maltese waters illegally and without proper boat registration.

At an arraignment hearing on Monday in Valletta, Malta's capital, Maltese prosecutors asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of the aid ship.

The Lifeline rescued 234 migrants in waters off Libya last month. Italy refused to let the ship before Malta last week provided ship safe harbor on the condition that Italy and seven other nations would each take in some of the rescued passengers.

The Maltese government also warned it would investigate the Lifeline's crew for possible violations of maritime laws.

Captain Claus-Peter Reisch was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. The charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

The 57-year-old German said after his arraignment: "We did the right thing."

Maltese prosecutors have asked a magistrate to order the confiscation of a migrant rescue ship run by a German aid group.

The German captain of the Lifeline appeared at an arraignment session Monday in Valletta, Malta.

Claus-Peter Reisch, 57, was charged with using the boat in Maltese waters without proper registration or license. That charge also incorporates the allegation of entering Maltese waters illegally.

The Lifeline rescued 234 migrants in waters off Libya, and Malta last week gave the ship safe harbor after diplomatic wrangling and eight other nations agreed to take some of the rescued.

Bail was set at 10,000 euros ($11,600). The captain was ordered to deposit his passport in court and sign in at a police station weekly.

Italy had refused to let the Lifeline dock.
Malta detains German migrant rescue boat MV Sea Watch 3, which had been docked in Valletta for repairs, as it attempts to head into the Mediterranean Sea to rescue migrants off the Libyan coast.