This week Katie Hopkins has been prowling the jetties of Catania, doing her best to stir up resentment against the thousands of migrants who arrive here.

I saw her on Tuesday, smiling for photographs on the quay where Save The Children's search and rescue vessel is moored.

She posed while the charity workers I chatted to packed up emergency kits containing bottled water, clean clothes and life-saving blankets.

Hopkins was accompanied by youthful far-right white extremists who call themselves Defend Europe, naively believing they can somehow stem the flow of sub-Saharan black Africans into the continent.

They have chartered a ship, currently somewhere between the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.

They say they will rescue migrants in distress and return them to Libya in north Africa, the country in which many of those same migrants would have been tortured, imprisoned, shackled and enslaved.

Roger Alonso, the Save the Children Search and Rescue Team leader, aboard the Vos Hestia which is moored in Catania, Italy (
Image:
Philip Coburn)
This is the rear deck where refugees will sleep and be treated (
Image:
Philip Coburn)
Each mission is meticulously planned and operated by professional crews (
Image:
Philip Coburn)

It is difficult to imagine a more abhorrent cause to attach oneself to. But Hopkins was happy to hang out with these zealots for a few days.

None of them actually did anything. Their presence was a straight forward publicity stunt.

Sadly, however, some people who quite rightly worry about mass migration might find them credible.

In fact, they are laughable as well as risible.

Some of the self-styled activists in Sicily this week to “defend Europe” were actually Americans. One was a known Holocaust denier.

The idea that Defend Europe and their new celebrity columnist supporter might actually intervene in the trafficking of impoverished people into Europe is also absurd.

Save The Children and the other charities operating vessels out of Italy and Malta are incredibly well-drilled.

Every stage of their rescue operation is meticulously organised. I have been watching their preparations.

The professional crews who operate these vessels – contracted seamen who have no axe to grind – run their voyages to the edge of Libyan waters with the exactly same efficiency they would employ if they were transporting a cargo of Chinese electrical goods.

Migrants wait to disembark from German vessel FGS Rhein in the Sicilian harbour of Catania (
Image:
REUTERS)
The Italian coast guard is working with Save the Children as refugees are making the dangerous journey across the sea in droves (
Image:
REUTERS)
Katie Hopkins was seen with a far right group

And, most significantly, it is not the charities themselves who are in control, but the Italian Coast Guard.

Why? Because Italy is bearing the brunt of this mass influx of desperate human beings and has chosen to play its part rather than ignore such terrible suffering.

To do otherwise would be easy, but thankfully the Italians – many of whom might well be troubled by mass migration – have decided to put their moral objections aside.

It is an honourable stance which puts Britain to shame. Italy gets little support, but is only on the frontline because it just happens to be the closest major nation to Libya – a country made lawless when Britain stepped aside after helping topple Colonel Gaddafi.

That nuance is something Katie Hopkins and her new chums at Defend Europe probably understand, but choose to disregard.

They are right to note that, to some extent, the smugglers who mercilessly send migrants into the Mediterranean on unseaworthy inflatable boats probably schedule their launches to coincide with the arrival of the rescue missions.

Roger Alonso said they are looking out for migrants making their way across the sea (
Image:
Philip Coburn)
Save the Children Search and Rescue vessel the Vos Hestia (
Image:
Philip Coburn)

But they are absolutely wrong to say there is a direct deal being done between the profiteering criminals and the charities.

As Save The Children search and rescue team leader Roger Alonso, 42, told me: “We use maps showing previous rescues and wait there for instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome. We would not be here without its approval.

“We are on the bridge with binoculars looking for a grey dot on the horizon, or the orange of the migrants' lifejackets. We are never in contact with the smugglers.

“It would be terrible if we were to stop these missions. There would be many more deaths if we were not there.

“What we are doing is not going to stop migration, but it is a life-saving solution to people who would otherwise be drowning.”

If the charity vessels abandoned their mission, the migrants would still set out, Roger said. They have been doing so since the fall of Gaddafi, and that will continue.

If turned back by Defend Europe, they would simply wait and set out again, even more determined.

The Save the Children vessel is making ready to rescue migrants at sea (
Image:
Philip Coburn)
The charity is working to prevent more migrant deaths at sea (
Image:
Philip Coburn)

Italy's Coast Guard and navy would not be able to cope. And many, many more would certainly drown.

As it is, the odds of dying on one of the illegal migrant crossings is around one in 40, not a prospect many Europeans would entertain if they were travelling the other way.

Instead of targeting her scattergun fury at the charities, Hopkins might do better to think about why so many migrants are willing to lose everything to get into Europe.

They come from Syria, Eritrea, Nigeria, the Gambia, Sudan, Somalia, and other countries where oppression, war, corruption and hunger prod people into making the reckless journey up through Libya and hopefully across the Med.

There, in the countries of origin, is where the solution to the migration crisis lies. By tackling the root cause, you might actually reduce the magnetic attraction of Europe.

Offer these people a reason to stay, and they might agree the risk of jumping on a leaking and overcrowded boat that should not even be allowed at sea is not one worth taking.