A Spanish fire fighter who helped saved thousands of migrants' lives is now facing 20 years in jail for his brave efforts.

Miguel Roldan has been accused of aiding illegal immigration and conspiring with human traffickers after helping in a rescue mission back in June 2017.

He was working for German NGO Jugend Rettet when he got a call at around 10pm – 18 hours into his shift.

He was told a migrant boat was sinking in the Mediterranean Sea so he rushed with two of his colleagues in a small boat to find the drowning migrants.

They sailed 200 metres out and then turned off the boat's engine so they could listen out for their desperate screams.

Within 10 minutes they found them but Rome’s Search and Rescue Control Center refused to give them permission to rescue them as they were in Libyan waters and had to negotiate with the North African country.

They were finally given permission 15 minutes later but tragically they only managed to save half of them.

And now the 32-year-old could be jailed for his heroic act, alongside the rest of his crew.

A spokesman for Jugend Rettet said the investigation will end in the summer.

If they believe there is a case to be heard the crew will go trial at the end of 2019.

Mr Roldán, however, does not believe it will get this far.

“Even just one minute spent in jail for saving lives would be too much," he told El Pais . "The accusation is a huge slap in the face."

Mr Roldan, who has been with the underwater unit of the Seville City Hall Fire Department since 2013, had previous experience on rescue missions in the Aegean Sea, just off the Greek island of Lesbos.

So he decided to use 20 days of his vacation in the summer of 2017 aboard Iuventa,   an old fishing vessel that was converted into a rescue ship by Jugend Rettet.

During those 20 days the crew sat 17 nautical miles from the coast of Libya in international waters where they managed to rescue 5,000 people.

Following the mission Mr Roldan returned to Seville and the crew continued rescuing people in the central Mediterranean migration route, saving around 14,000 people.

But the missions were abruptly halted on August 2 when Italian authorities seized the Iuventa and launched an investigation into the crew for “facilitating illegal immigration.”

A judge in the Sicilian city of Trapani, accused the entire crew – seven Germans, two Scots and Roldán – of helping human traffickers and an investigation was launched.

Mr Roldan said: "It’s unbelievable. We respect the rules so much that we’ve watched people die because of bureaucracy."

Mr Roldan's case comes after three firefighters from Seville were accused of people smuggling in 2018 while volunteering for Proem-Aid (Professional Emergency Aid), a Spanish association that aims to save migrants drowning at sea.

The three men were acquitted, but Mr Roldan and his fellow crew members may not be so lucky.

According to the International Organization for Migration (OIM), 3,116 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2017, with the majority – 2,832 people – drowning on the central Mediterranean route.

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