Venice, Apr. 19, (dpa/GNA) – Court proceedings against the crew of a German migrant rescue ship have been dropped in Sicily, almost seven years after the vessel was seized by Italian authorities.

The crew of the Iuventa, operated by the German organization Jugend Rettet, welcomed the decision taken by a court in the port city of Trapani on Friday.

The ship was confiscated in the summer of 2017 on its way to helping rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. Thousands of migrants undertake the dangerous sea crossing from northern Africa each month in order to try and reach European shores.

The crew and other associates were accused of collaborating with Libyan smugglers and investigated for aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

According to Jugend Rettet, the Iuventa was one of the first private vessels to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean in 2016 and aided more than 14,000 people in distress before it was seized.

“As a result of a flawed investigation driven by political motives, thousands of people have died in the Mediterranean or [been] forcibly returned to war-torn Libya. Meanwhile, our ship has been left to decay,” one of the defendants, Sascha Girke, said in a statement. GNA