A GERMAN sea captain faces a 20-year prison sentence for helping to rescue more than 1,000 migrants at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pia Klemp, one of just a handful of female boat captains, warned that “sea rescue missions have become criminalised” as she vowed to fight her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

She is the latest victim of the far-right Italian government’s crackdown on desperate migrants trying to reach Europe by sea, which has seen those engaging in humanitarian rescue missions charged with “assisting illegal immigration.”