EUROPEAN states’ crackdown on NGO refugee rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas escalated today when three German charities were told that new regulations bar their ships from sailing.

The three organisations, Mare Liberum, Mission Lifeline and ResQShip, issued a joint statement torday condemning the German Transport Ministry's amendment of safety regulations relating to yachts and other small vessels engaged in humanitarian work of any sort.  

The new rules, the charities said, were designed to be impossible for smaller humanitarian ships sailing under the German flag to comply with.