FACE OFF

Migrant Ship Captain Arrested in Italy After Hitting Police Boat

The vessel was carrying 40 migrants that were recused from an unseaworthy vessel launched by Libya-based human traffickers.

A 31-year-old German captain was arrested Saturday after ramming her ship, carrying 40 migrants aboard, into an Italian border police boat on a Mediterranean island close to North Africa. Carola Rackete hit the police motorboat, which was blocking her vessel’s path to dock, in defiance of Italy’s anti-migrant interior minister. The migrants were recused from an unseaworthy vessel launched by Libya-based human traffickers, but Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused to let them disembark until other European Union countries agreed to take them, the AP reports. Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal pledged to take in the migrants Friday. Rackete’s lawyer told Italian state TV that she had been arrested for investigation of resisting a warship, which if convicted, risks up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $58,000. No one was injured in the exchange, but the motorboat’s side was damaged.