Sea Watch, the 57 shipwrecked individuals who remained on board have disembarked in Trapani: according to the government, they were supposed to arrive a thousand kilometers further north.

57 migrants who remained on board the Sea Watch 5, the ship of the German NGO that recently rescued 93 people from two rubber boats in distress in the Sicilian Channel, have landed in Trapani. Many of the shipwrecked individuals present burns from gasoline, as well as symptoms of seasickness due to the high waves that have characterized the last few days of navigation. No one has been taken to the hospital so far. The most serious cases -  five women and four children, all Sudanese -  were evacuated at dawn on March 16 by a Coast Guard patrol boat. 

The NGO received an order from Rome to take the migrants to Marina di Carrara, over a thousand kilometers further north. This directive is a result of the Piantedosi decree, but it clashes with the weather conditions and the precarious health status of those who have been on board for days, exhausted from a journey often marked by violence and deprivation. After repeatedly requesting to disembark at the nearest Sicilian port in vain, Sea Watch decided to disobey and headed towards Trapani. After a morning anchored in the roadstead, the disembarkation operations were completed in the early afternoon. 

Yesterday, the Juvenile Court of Palermo - to which the NGO had submitted an urgent appeal - ordered the immediate disembarkation of the minors on board: 20 unaccompanied and three children with their families. 

Now - as has happened in almost all previous cases where humanitarian rescue activists have chosen to dock at the nearest safe port, not complying with the Piantedosi decree - they risk facing sanctions and the administrative seizure of the ship. These measures are often subsequently annulled by various courts, in the name of international law. 

The same choice and consequences were also taken by the Italian NGO Mediterranea twice during 2025, refusing to disembark in Genoa and Livorno and choosing to head towards Porto Empedocle and Trapani.