Seven Tunisian fishermen are facing trial in Sicily Italy, their crime? Rescuing refugees from certain death. The seven fishermen were arrested by Italian authorities on the 8th of August after their ship came ashore on Lampedusa, Italy’s most southern island with refugees they say they rescued from the Mediterranean.

According to the fishermen the migrants amongst whom were 11 women, two of whom were pregnant and two children had been attempting to cross the Mediterranean at one of the shortest points between Africa and Europe. Their sinking boat was spotted by the Tunisians 30 miles from Lampedusa. After rescuing the stricken refugees the fishermen radioed ahead to Italian coast guards alerting them of their plight.

The Italian coast guard ordered them to turn back but the Tunisian captain said he ignored the order because of the state of the refugees and was promptly arrested on landing.

His statement has been backed by almost all the migrants but the Italians seem intent on using the trail to send out a message that humanitarian rescues would now be considered as ‘people smuggling’.

European countries in the south of the Mediterranean are taking an increasingly hard line position against all refugees, in 2005 Malta refused to rescue 27 migrants who had been clinging to fishing nets just off its coastal line for three days without food or water.