A Norwegian-flagged NGO rescue ship has been detained by Italy’s coast guard, after a 14-hour inspection flagged “irregularities”. 

The Geo Barents was inspected in the port of Augusta in Sicily, where it disembarked 410 migrants that it had rescued at sea last month. 

Italy’s coast guard said that the inspection had found 22 shortcomings, with 10 of them serious enough to require the ship to remain in port. 

They highlighted the fact that the ship only had enough emergency equipment for 83 people and said this therefore meant that the vessel was not in a position to host 410 people, as it had done when rescuing the migrants.

Italy’s coast guard described the inspection as a “periodic” one that was necessary as the ship’s previous inspection dated back to April 2019 in Finland. 

It said that coast guard officials have inspected 681 foreign-flagged ships this year alone, with 55 of those ending up detained due to shortcomings that posed a serious risk to navigation and maritime safety.

Doctors Without Borders, which operates the vessel, said that the inspection had gone on for 14 hours and noted that it was the 13th time in three years that “Italian authorities have stopped a humanitarian ship”.