THE CREW of a charity-run refugee rescue ship disembarked over 230 people at a port in north-west Italy today.

The Geo Barents, a vessel run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), initially saved 69 people, including 25 minors, from an overcrowded rubber boat in international waters off the coast of Libya on Tuesday.

Following the rescue, the Italian authorities ordered the Geo Barents to sail almost 700 nautical miles away to the northern Italian city of La Spezia — this would be like Britain’s RNLI being told to disembark people rescued in the waters off Guernsey in Orkney.