The aircraft – Moonbird and Colibri – are operated by the German NGO Sea-Watch and the French NGO Pilotes Volontaires respectively and have been completing missions over the Mediterranean since 2017.
For the past month, neither plane has been able to carry out missions after the Italian civil aviation authority said they could “only be used for recreational and non-professional activities”.
Sea-Watch and Pilotes Volontaires are protesting the move.
Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer called the decision political, claiming that the Moonbird is in compliance with Italian and national norms.
“They know that this is a breach of international law,” Neugebauer said.
“One reason our missions are so important, and the reason the European Union tries to stop us by any means necessary, is that it is annoying for them that there are eyes at sea that bring up their human rights violations, that are coming up again and again.”
Jose Benavente Fuentes, a pilot who has been flying out of Lampedusa for Pilotes Volontaires, said two lawyers were working to try to negotiate with Italy’s civil aviation authority.
Also on Tuesday, Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, banned a German rescue ship carrying migrants stranded off Libya from entering Italian territorial waters.
Since coming to power in June 2018, Salvini has repeatedly taken a hard line against migrants and the NGOs attempting to rescue them at sea, including banning rescue ships from docking at Italian ports.
