Since 30 June 2026, the sailing boat TROTAMAR III, owned by the German NGO CompassCollective, has not been allowed to set sail on its next deployment. Yesterday, the Sicilian regional government set the period of administrative detention for the TROTAMAR III at 45 days. The restriction was imposed following the rescue of 25 people from a rubber dinghy within the Libyan search and rescue zone.

The 13-metre-long sailing boat TROTAMAR III sails the Mediterranean and, with rotating crews, rescues people in distress at sea. Since 27 June, the current crew – comprising five volunteers and their skipper and operations manager, Matthias Wiedenlübbert – had been operating in the area south-east of Lampedusa. In the early hours of 29 June, the crew found 25 people adrift at sea in a leaky rubber dinghy with a faulty engine. To save them from drowning, the crew evacuated the shipwrecked people onto board. All those rescued are from Somalia, a country ravaged by civil war – a failed state characterised by terrorism, clan conflicts and political instability. The rescue came just in the nick of time, as the so-called Libyan coastguard turned up in a speedboat just a few minutes after the rescue operation had ended. Instead of taking the people from the refugee boat back to Libya against their will, as is so often the case, the ‘coastguard’ could only helplessly order the skipper to head north immediately. This ‘order’, issued in international waters, has no legal basis whatsoever, as international maritime law applies here and no state has the authority to issue such instructions.

Skipper Matthias Wiedenlübbert, however, acted in accordance with international maritime law by evacuating the 25 people and informed the maritime emergency centres (MRCC) in Rome and Malta immediately after first sighting the rubber dinghy. He is now being accused of failing to involve the rescue centre in Libya. Wiedenlübbert commented: “This was a matter of human lives and the rights of people fleeing their homes. Libya tramples on human rights and cannot offer a safe haven in accordance with international conventions. Extradition to Libya was not an option.”

The coastguard on Lampedusa took a different view and, following the handover of the people in the early hours of 30 June 2026, imposed a sailing ban on the Trotamar III. On 8th July 2026, the Central Public Order Office in Agrigento (Prefettura) imposed a 45-day detention order on the rescue vessel and an administrative fine of €10,000. Katja Tempel, spokesperson for the CompassCollective, commented: “The repression of civilian rescue organisations by the Italian government is leading to a rising death toll. That is why we will be taking legal action against the detention of the TROTAMAR III so that we can be operational again as soon as possible. The next crew is already ready to go.”

In 2026 alone, five civilian rescue vessels have already been detained in port by the far-right Italian government. This is now the third time overall that the TROTAMAR III has been detained. Legal challenges against the first two detentions are still pending before the court in Agrigento (Sicily).

Since the start of the year, 1,337 people have died or gone missing in the Central Mediterranean (IOM), and at least 6,811 people have been prevented from fleeing and forced back to Libya (UNHCR). This makes it the deadliest start to a year in the region since the IOM began recording deaths and missing persons in 2014. In November 2025, 13 maritime rescue organisations, including the CompassCollective, therefore founded the Justice Fleet alliance in collaboration with a network of civil society organisations. The alliance’s aim is to uphold international law by taking action against the unlawful detention of rescue vessels in Italy and by denouncing the outsourcing of search and rescue tasks to illegitimate and violent actors in Libya.

The TROTAMAR III has been carrying out search and rescue operations off the Tunisian and Libyan coasts for three years. In 24 operations, 2017 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard after the crew of the civilian sailing boat had provided them with life jackets and drinking water for hours, having alerted the relevant rescue coordination centre. To date, 432 people have been rescued directly onto the sailing boat and brought to safety in Lampedusa.

Images are available for free use provided CompassCollective is credited as the source at https://compass-collective.org/presse
Interviews with the skipper are available on request.

Katja Tempel
presse@compass-collective.org
+49 160 44 00 206

Katja Tempel
Pressekontakt
CompassCollective- Das Wendland schickt ein Schiff!
Meußließen 2
29459 Clenze
+49 160 44 00 206
presse@compass-collective.org
www.compass-collective.org