A GERMAN NGO migrant rescue ship left for the Mediterranean yesterday after a blockade that kept it in a French port for months was lifted by a Dutch court this week.

Sea-Watch’s ship, the Sea-Watch 3 (which sails under the flag of the Netherlands and is therefore subject to Dutch laws), had been blocked from leaving Marseilles in February after the Netherlands introduced new safety regulation applying only to “organisations with idealistic objectives,” as the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen put it.