[10][11] On 3 January 2019, France, Germany and the Netherlands offered to take some of the 49 migrants blocked off Malta on Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye "as a collective allocation effort".

[11][8] According to Mina Andreeva, the spokeswoman of the European Commission, more solidarity is needed along with "foreseeable and sustainable solutions for the landing and re-localization in the Mediterranean"; she quoted the commissioner in charge of migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

The Italian government forbade her from entering the port, and initiated legal action against the Netherlands;[18] the organisation referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

[25] Italy allowed only 11 especially vulnerable people to disembark; on 25 June 2019, the captain of Sea-Watch 3 threatened to land at Lampedusa in spite of the interdiction,[26] eventually entering Italian territorial waters.

[33] Sea-Watch 3 later collided with the 50-knot Class 800 patrol boat[34] "808" of Italian law enforcement agency Guardia di Finanza, which had tried to block the larger vessel from docking.

[35] Since the Guardia di Finanza was legally considered a combatant while it protected waterways, the Italian media reported that Rackete could also be charged with attack on a warship, a crime punishable with 3 to 10 years in prison.

Built in 1972 as an offshore supply ship, the organisation Médecins Sans Frontières commissioned it as a search and rescue vessel under the name Dignity I before transfer to Sea-Watch.

The ship is run by a cooperation between Sea-Watch and Médecins Sans Frontières and operated as a German-flagged rescue vessel in the Mediterranean Sea since August 2020.

[45] Since 2017, Sea-Watch have operated a SAR-coordinating reconnaissance aircraft, Moonbird, a single-engined Cirrus SR22, and since June 2020, also the Seabird, a twin-engined high-performance Beechcraft Baron 58.