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. A different rescue boat picked up eight people from a dinghy found further east. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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. Captain Claus-Peter Reisch 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. A white sheet emblazoned with the phrase, "Rescue ships blocked 400 dead" was held outside the courthouse. 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.
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.