June 29 saw the latest episode in the criminalization of migration and migrant solidarity in the Mediterranean. German activist Carola Rackete, captain of the rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, was arrested by Italian authorities because of her efforts to save migrants from drowning. Though the courts have vindicated her actions, the government’s criminalization of the NGO missions continues.

A standoff had begun earlier in June, when Italian authorities ordered the ship — which had rescued some fifty-three people — to stay out of the country’s waters. This was followed by two weeks of brinkmanship in which passengers and crew were made to suffer the maritime summer heat and the psychological pressure of an endless wait. As with other recent rescue ships, the Italian government insisted that it should reroute for Tripoli, despite the mounting civil war in the Libyan capital.

When the crew’s appeal to the European Court of Human Rights was rejected on June 25, Captain Rackete decided to disobey orders and enter Italian waters, drawing her into a head-on public conflict with the Italian state.