Italy Grounds Migrant ‘Rescue’ Plane in Border Crackdown
8th August 2025
Italy has for the first time grounded an NGO reconnaissance plane, suspending Sea Watch’s Seabird 1 for 20 days over violations from June 30. The order came from the National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), extending Rome’s clampdown on activist groups from the sea to the air.
The German NGO tried to link the decision to its recent claim of a “failure to rescue” by Italian authorities that allegedly left three migrants dead—an accusation ENAC has not confirmed. Sea Watch denounced the measure as a “pretext” and vowed to defy the suspension, calling for donations to fight it in court.
A 2024 ENAC directive already bans NGO ships and aircraft from operating in the central Mediterranean without Coast Guard coordination, citing maritime law and national security. Rome has repeatedly accused NGOs of undermining state-led border controls.
This is an ongoing process with such NGOs. Their favorite is to hover off the coast of North Africa waiting for some overpacked boatload of “migrants” to make it past the 3-mile limit, then swoop in and “rescue” them and haul them to rest of the way to Europe, where they enter the “asylum” system and are never gotten rid of.