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| - Italy has "finally" released the Open Arms migrant rescue vessel after more than two months of administrative detention, the Spanish charity that operates it said Friday. "The Open Arms is finally free", Proactiva Open Arms (PAO) said in a statement, adding it would sail back to Spain for maintenance work before resuming rescue missions. The ship was stopped at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on April 17, after an inspection by the Italian coast guard found it in breach of maritime safety regulations. In its statement, POA said there were only "small technical irregularities which were promptly fixed by the crew" but despite that, the Open Arms remained grounded. "Competent authorities refused for weeks to re-examine the ship and verify" its full compliance with maritime safety and environmental regulations, Proactive Open Arms complained. NGOs have repeatedly accused Italian authorities of blocking charity vessels on flimsy grounds. On Friday, POA called it a "strategy to obstruct humanitarian work at sea". It said NGO boats were inspected ten times since May 2020, resulting in eight detentions, compared with eight inspections and just one detention between August 2019 and February 2020. Between 2015 and July 2019 there were no inspections at all, POA added. Charity rescue ships have for years patrolled the central Mediterranean, one of the world's deadliest migration routes, while accusing Italy and the EU of not doing enough to save migrants. In the year to date, 691 people died during crossings from North Africa to Italy or Malta, up from 239 in the same period of 2020, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration. aa/bp
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