In the past four months, three Italian courts ruled in favour of SAR NGOs
Again, Italian courts have challenged the unlawful and arbitrary detention of non-governmental rescue ships since the Piantedosi decree-law was implemented in 2023. Their legal assessment is clear: Libya is not a place of safety, and Libya’s authorities do not conduct search and rescue (SAR) activities in line with international law.
SAR NGOs have claimed this since the beginning of their activities, and now more and more courts have decided in line with this assessment. Moreover, the litigation concerning SAR is evolving and leading to new results in favour of SAR NGOs.
Picture: October 2022, Max Cavallari, SOS Humanity
Two important court rulings clarified that search and rescue organisations are not obliged to follow orders from actors that conflict with international maritime and human rights law.
The reasons for the 46 ship detentions so far vary, as the Piantedosi decree law upholds several unlawful conditions under which SAR NGOs can be sanctioned. After 13 SAR NGOs founded the Justice Fleet and decided to stop communicating with the Libyan Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC Libya)[1], the Italian authorities (in the role of prefects) prevented several rescue vessels from leaving ports from November 2025 on the grounds that they were “failing to provide the information to the competent national authority for search and rescue at sea”.
Both SOS Humanity’s and Sea-Watch’s ships (Humanity 1 and Sea Watch 5) were among the ships detained in recent months, and both organisations won in court.
Humanity 1 was the first vessel detained for not communicating with the so-called Libyan Rescue Coordination Centre after rescuing 85 people in distress in December 2025. The rescue ship was prevented from setting sail for 20 days. On July 9, 2026, the Civil Court of Ortona ruled that the detention was unlawful. In this ruling, the Ortona court importantly emphasised that it is “absolutely impossible” to consider Libya a place of safety as human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants continue with impunity. Although the Italian government appealed the decision and the outcome remains unknown, the ruling again shows that search and rescue organisations conduct rescues in line with international maritime law and that their assessment that Libyan SAR actors are illegitimate because of their violent, human rights-violating behaviour is legally backed.
Sea Watch 5 was detained in Naples on August 18 this year for the same reason, despite multiple radio contacts on-scene. However, on September 16, after 30 days detention (instead of the 45 ordered), the Civil Court of Naples lifted the detention without hearing, and on October 23, confirmed its decision. Notably, the Civil Court relied on a recent decision of 23 September 2026, which concerned another detention of Humanity 1 in December 2023. In the second instance, the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro overturned the first-instance decision (Court of Crotone) and ruled that Humanity 1’s detention in December 2023 was unlawful. Not only did the Court of Appeal affirm that Libya is not a place of safety, but it also clarified that orders that would result in returning people to Libya are not binding and that ships refusing to follow them cannot be sanctioned. The Court in Naples reached the same conclusion while ruling in a prima facie manner.
Moreover, both Courts referred to the ruling by the Italian Constitutional Court no. 101/2025, according to which a failure to comply with an authority’s instructions can be sanctioned only if those instructions were lawful and consistent with the SAR Convention and other rules on rescue at sea. Disobedience cannot be punished in itself! Both courts concluded that the captains of the rescue vessels were not obliged to follow instructions which would enable interceptions to Libya. Sea-Watch 5’s shipmaster rather facilitated a rescue instead of allegedly hindering a timely rescue.
The Italian Constitutional Court enabled civil courts to base their decisions on general, essential findings on civil search and rescue and international maritime law. As Giulia Crescini, lawyer of SOS Humanity, puts it: “This decision has the great merit of applying the principles of the Italian Constitutional Court’s decision on the sanctioning of non-governmental search and rescue organisations in May 2025. It sets a valuable precedent for pending proceedings and future detentions, showing that international law and human rights form the basis of any jurisdiction. The ruling clarifies that a court must consider whether the rescued people would realistically have disembarked in a place of safety in line with maritime law.”
These rulings uphold international law and human rights, which search-and-rescue organisations are fighting for in the Central Mediterranean. Once again, court decisions make clear that administrative detentions under the Piantedosi decree-law are punitive and unlawful. They also show how important it is to challenge the legality of the Piantedosi decree-law, as several SAR NGOs did, to ensure states comply with international law. Both rulings strengthen the legal position of SAR NGOs and the Justice Fleet alliance, which do not consider the JRCC Libya and so-called Libyan Coast Guard legitimate search-and-rescue actors.
Challenging and fighting for the rule of law is worth it, and, fortunately, Italian courts follow the dignity and personal rights of every human being. No matter where they are born and no matter where they are and, in this case, have to flee to.
While a few Civil Courts declared the detentions unlawful, many proceedings, such as the one in front of the Civil Court of Naples, still remain pending on the merits of the case. In the next months or years, more decisions are expected on the question of the legitimacy of Libyan actors.
Let’s hope jurisdiction evolves further and that the Italian Government’s sanction system, which threatens SAR NGOs with the seizure of their ships, will be further challenged so that SAR NGOs can do what they do: saving the lives of people on the move.
Berlin, 23 October 2026
Janna Sauerteig (SOS Humanity) and Bérénice Gaudin (Sea-Watch)
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[1] The Justice Fleet campaign’s call to end operational coordination with Libyan maritime authorities does not preclude direct, on-scene communication between rescue vessels and Libyan Coast Guard actors during encounters at sea
