PALERMO, Sicily (CN) - A German humanitarian vessel carrying 57 asylum-seekers, many of them sick and exhausted, declared a "state of necessity" before defying Italian authorities and docking Wednesday at a Sicilian port.

The Sea-Watch 5's entry into the port of Trapani ended four harrowing days that saw the vessel's crew rescue 93 migrants off the coast of North Africa and then get blocked from docking in Sicily by Italian authorities.

With war raging in the Middle East, Europe is bracing for an influx of asylum-seekers, many of whom attempt perilous crossings in rubber dinghies from North Africa to Sicily.

This passage is one of the world's deadliest migrant routes, and this year has turned into the deadliest in over a decade, with more than 680 people reported dead or missing.

The Sea-Watch 5's Wednesday decision to defy Italian authorities and dock in Trapani, a city in western Sicily, was the latest chapter in a long-running legal and political fight humanitarian groups are waging against Italy's efforts to block them from rescuing migrants.

Since 2023, in a bid to hamper civilian rescue missions, Italy's far-right government has ordered Sea-Watch and other groups to take migrants picked up at sea to ports far to the north of Sicily. Humanitarian groups say the decree violates human rights laws.

The Sea-Watch 5, a German-flagged vessel, said Italian authorities on Monday refused to allow it to land in Sicily after rescuing 93 people on Sunday.

Instead, the Sea-Watch 5 was ordered to make a 680-mile trip to a port in Tuscany called Marina di Carrara.

"This port is as far as Milan is from Copenhagen," Sea-Watch complained on social media Monday. "A dangerous four-day journey for people who are exhausted and in need of medical assistance on land."

On Sunday night, Italy's coast guard evacuated nine asylum-seekers in extremely bad condition, including a 2-year-old girl suffering from severe hypothermia. At the time, the Sea-Watch 5 was near Lampedusa, a Sicilian island close to North Africa.

By Tuesday, Sea-Watch asked a juvenile court in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, to order minors and their family members on the vessel to be allowed to land in Sicily.

Later that day, the court granted Sea-Watch's request, and the Italian coast guard evacuated minors and family members. The boat was by then about 35 miles from Trapani, and the sea was turning rough with high waves.

Also on Tuesday, Sea-Watch reported that the situation in the Mediterranean was dire, with at least 225 other people still at sea in rough seas and that 17 people had died.

The group reported that 111 people were stranded on a gas platform and a nearby merchant vessel. It blasted European Union and Italian authorities for not sending out rescue missions.

"These are dramatic hours in the Mediterranean," Sea-Watch reported. "EU authorities are refusing to intervene."

By Tuesday night, Sea-Watch said its crew refused to comply with instructions to head to the Marina di Carrara because such a long journey endangered the rest of those they had rescued.

"Basta!" the group said Tuesday night. "We are disobeying Italian command to head to the north of Italy. We are sailing to Trapani port."

The group said it would "support people fighting for their right to flee and claim asylum. Italian courts have proven us right in the past."

The group said those "on board are suffering from seasickness, exhaustion, and fuel burns, which must be treated under proper clinical conditions to prevent infections and, in the worst case, sepsis."

It added that a pregnant woman was on board and that some people suffered from asthma and febrile respiratory infections.

On Wednesday, the Sea-Watch 5 issued a "state of necessity" declaration and entered the port in Trapani, where the remaining 57 asylum-seekers disembarked.

Giulia Messmer, a Sea-Watch spokesperson, said the vessel was at risk of being detained by Italian authorities in Trapani.

Since 2023, Italian authorities have detained Sea-Watch vessels seven times for a total of 135 days, Messmer said in an email. Also, the group's airplane, the Seabird 1, was detained for 20 days.

In the past year, Messmer said another rescue organization, the Mediterranea, also used a state of necessity declaration to avoid going to a port farther north.

"A state of necessity is not merely a means to enter a different port than assigned, but it is a principle of necessity under international law," Messmer said.

She said entering a port "even against explicit instructions" is lawful "if there is an imminent danger to the lives and physical integrity of the persons on board."

"When states break the law, the only option left is a path of resistance, using every legal means available," she added. "We follow maritime law, not political whims."

Since 2023, she said Italy has forced rescue vessels into voyaging about 217,500 extra miles, or the "equivalent to nearly nine times around the world."

This, she said, has "kept them more than 900 days away from their area of operation."

"This practice is one element in the active strategy of criminalization and rescue obstruction in Italy, intending to violently hinder migration across the sea," she said.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Source: Courthouse News Service