An Italian prosecutor gave the first official confirmation Wednesday that people working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being investigated for contributing to illegal migration.
NGOs have for weeks faced accusations in Italy of working in cahoots with migrant smugglers in Libya. But, so far, prosecutors had been known to be leading fact-finding probes, rather than proper criminal proceedings.
"The Trapani prosecutors' office has current investigations concerning the possible crime of abetting illegal migration focused not on NGOs per se, but individuals belonging to NGOs," chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said.
He did not name the NGOs involved.
There are currently 10 charities rescuing migrants off the coast of Libya, including: Doctors Without Borders (MSF); Save the Children; and Malta's MOAS. There are also smaller outfits like Jugend Rettet; Sea Watch; Sea-Eye; LifeBoat; and Mission Lifeline from Germany.
Speaking before a committee of the Italian Senate, the Sicilian magistrate said that some NGOs carry out migrant rescues without previously warning the Italian coastguard, the main coordinating body for Mediterranean migrant rescues.
Even if there is no evidence of direct phone contacts with traffickers in Libya, some "people aboard the [NGO] ships are clearly aware of the time and place where they will find vessels carrying migrants, so they are clearly previously informed," Cartosio said.
The prosecutor's remarks are likely to inflame the polemic about NGOs' rescue work, first started by another prosecutor, Carmelo Zuccaro of Catania, who accused them of agreeing migrant pick ups with smugglers and possibly taking money from them.
However, Cartosio made some important qualifications.
He stressed that, under the legal principle of the "state of necessity," people committing a crime may not be punishable if it can be proven that they acted in the name of a higher aim, like saving a human life.
So NGOs intervening to prevent migrants from drowning is "100-per-cent" justified, and it may even be that taking active steps - like contacting traffickers in Libya - to free people from torture camps may fall under "state of necessity" considerations, Cartosio said.
The prosecutor also dismissed speculation about NGOs being funded by criminal networks or being guided by criminal intent.
"I exclude that there is evidence allowing us to say that NGOs have received funding of illicit origin. I exclude that. At the same time, I exclude that NGOs are acting [...] for anything other than humanitarian purposes," Cartosio said.
Italy is taking the brunt of migrant inflows into Europe.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, nearly 90 per cent of the 49,466 people who crossed the Mediterranean Sea since the start of the year landed in Italy. The Italian Interior Ministry says arrivals are up 42 per cent from the same period of 2016.
The UNHCR also estimates that NGOs contributed to one-third of rescue operations in the central Mediterranean. It also estimates that at least 1,150 people have gone missing or died during sea journeys to Europe.
