Refugee rescue boat called to aid anti-migrant craft

A pro-migrant organization’s boat was called upon to rescue a vessel used by the anti-immigrant Defend Europe group Friday.

According to Sea-Eye, a nongovernmental organization whose boats rescue struggling migrants, Italian officials instructed the crew of one of its boats to attend to Defend Europe’s C-Star craft, which has been patrolling the Mediterranean, after it suffered a mechanical failure.

Michael Buschheuer, the chairman of Sea-Eye, said: “To help a ship in distress in the duty of anyone at sea, without regard for their origin, race, religion or beliefs.”

Defend Europe, which had vowed to stop the “invasion” of refugees attempting to sail to Europe, refused the group’s aid, according to a press release from Sea-Eye, which continued its exploratory course for shipwrecked and drowning people.

Earlier in the day, the Defend Europe group confirmed in a statement on Twitter that its vessel had “developed a minor technical problem.”

The group has struggled throughout its mission, with the C-Star being held up in Egypt and Cyprus, while its crew was also caught up in allegations of people smuggling but released for lack of evidence. Tunisia refused to allow the C-Star entry to the country’s ports.

A woman cries after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea about 15 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on July 25, 2017. More than 6,600 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in January 2018, according to the UN migration agency, and more than 240 people died on the Mediterranean Sea during that month.

Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015.

Migrants step over dead bodies while being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya in October 2016. Agence France-Presse photographer Aris Messinis was on a Spanish rescue boat that encountered several crowded migrant boats. Messinis said the rescuers counted 29 dead bodies -- 10 men and 19 women, all between 20 and 30 years old. "I've (seen) in my career a lot of death," he said. "I cover war zones, conflict and everything. I see a lot of death and suffering, but this is something different. Completely different."

Authorities stand near the body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey, in September 2015. Alan, his brother and their mother drowned while fleeing Syria. This photo was shared around the world, often with a Turkish hashtag that means "Flotsam of Humanity."

Migrants board a train at Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, after the station was reopened in September 2015.

Children cry as migrants in Greece try to break through a police cordon to cross into Macedonia in August 2015. Thousands of migrants -- most of them fleeing Syria's bitter conflict -- were stranded in a no-man's land on the border.

The Kusadasi Ilgun, a sunken 20-foot boat, lies in waters off the Greek island of Samos in November 2016.

Migrants bathe outside near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Subotica, Serbia, in January 2017.

A police officer in Calais, France, tries to prevent migrants from heading for the Channel Tunnel to England in June 2015.

A migrant walks past a burning shack in the southern part of the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais, France, in March 2016. Part of the camp was being demolished -- and the inhabitants relocated -- in response to unsanitary conditions at the site.

Migrants stumble as they cross a river north of Idomeni, Greece, attempting to reach Macedonia on a route that would bypass the border-control fence in March 2016.

In September 2015, an excavator dumps life vests that were previously used by migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The Turkish coast guard helps refugees near Aydin, Turkey, after their boat toppled en route to Greece in January 2016.

A woman sits with children around a fire at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni in March 2016.

A column of migrants moves along a path between farm fields in Rigonce, Slovenia, in October 2015.

A ship crowded with migrants flips onto its side in May 2016 as an Italian navy ship approaches off the coast of Libya. Passengers had rushed to the port side, a shift in weight that proved too much. Five people died and more than 500 were rescued.

Refugees break through a barbed-wire fence on the Greece-Macedonia border in February 2016, as tensions boiled over regarding new travel restrictions into Europe.

Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers during a registration procedure in Kos, Greece, in August 2015.

A member of the humanitarian organization Sea-Watch holds a migrant baby who drowned following the capsizing of a boat off Libya in May 2016.

A migrant in Gevgelija, Macedonia, tries to sneak onto a train bound for Serbia in August 2015.

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the Mediterranean from a crowded wooden boat during a rescue operation about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, in August 2016.

Refugees rescued off the Libyan coast get their first sight of Sardinia as they sail in the Mediterranean Sea toward Cagliari, Italy, in September 2015.

Local residents and rescue workers help migrants from the sea after a boat carrying them sank off the island of Rhodes, Greece, in April 2015.

Investigators in Burgenland, Austria, inspect an abandoned truck that contained the bodies of refugees who died of suffocation in August 2015. The 71 victims -- most likely fleeing war-ravaged Syria -- were 60 men, eight women and three children.

Syrian refugees sleep on the floor of a train car taking them from Macedonia to the Serbian border in August 2015. How to help the ongoing migrant crisis

Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos

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Defend Europe, which relies on crowd funding, believes that “massive immigration” is responsible for “changing the face” of Europe.

On its website it says that “there is a danger we Europeans will become a minority in our own European homelands.” It has also accused NGOs of carrying out illegal smuggling.

Most recently, the boat had been heading towards the Libyan coastline.

A banner that reads 'Stop Human Trafficking' is attached to the side of the C-Star as it sails in the Mediterranean Sea.

‘Pressure’

NGO rescue ships have been under increasing pressure, with Italian authorities stepping up efforts to restrict the number of migrants attempting to cross the deadly sea route between Libya and Italy over the past few weeks.

In late July, the Italian government passed a controversial code of conduct for NGOs operating search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean, asking that the rescue boats take armed police onboard in what they say is an effort to crack down on human smugglers.

Libya is a well-known jumping-off point for many migrants seeking refuge on European shores. Many, from sub-Saharan Africa, are fleeing war and persecution; others from impoverished nations in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have opted to risk their lives on the treacherous journey in the search for better economic opportunities.

Libya has become the base for a well-oiled human-trafficking operation that’s relied on the country’s lack of effective central governance to operate with relative ease.

Since the start of this year, 2,385 migrants have died on the central Mediterranean route, according to the International Organization for Migration; 114,287 migrants have reached European shores, 85% of them in Italy.

CNN’s Laura Goehler and Kara Fox contributed to this report.