THE criminalisation of civil refugee rescue operations in the Mediterranean has reached “another peak,” rescuers warned this weekend after the Italian port authorities banned another NGO ship from leaving port.

The Sea Watch 4 became the fifth NGO rescue ship in as many months to be placed under an administrative blockade on the Italian island of Sicily on Saturday, following an 11-hour inspection by the Italian coastguard.

The inspectors claimed the ship — which completed the rescue of 353 people earlier this month and finished a two-week quarantine last Friday — had too many life jackets on board, an unsuitable sewage system for the number of people rescued, and the wrong registration for saving lives.