Two children dead and one person remains missing after a boat in distress with over 90 people on board capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on 29 of July 2025. The monitoring aircraft Seabird 2 of the search and rescue organization Sea-Watch first spotted the boat in distress on Monday, 28 July, and alerted all responsible European authorities. The merchant vessel PORT FUKUOKA rescued the people one day later. During the rescue intervention the boat capsized. The German human rights commissioner Lars Castellucci accompanied the flight on 29 July.
Seabird 2, a civil monitoring aircraft operated by the sea rescue organization Sea-Watch, sighted over 90 people in distress for the first time on 28 July 2025 at 13:59 CEST. The aircrew had already observed that two people had gone overboard temporarily. Starting shortly after, the crew issued multiple distress calls to relevant authorities. Despite these alerts, no rescue was launched for several hours. It took five hours for the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to relay the distress message. However, Italy issued the distress communication on behalf of Libyan militias operating under the umbrella of the so-called Libyan coastguard to shift away its rescue responsibility. EU border agency Frontex’s aircraft Sparrow 2 arrived on scene approximately six hours after Seabird 2’s initial sighting. It flew directly over the boat in distress, but no rescue operation was initiated, and no direct response to the distress situation occurred.
By the morning of 29 July, the boat in distress had still not been rescued. On its second flight, aircraft Seabird 2 witnessed the nearby merchant ship PORT FUKUOKA, a vessel not equipped for such operations, attempting to assist. During this intervention, the overcrowded boat capsized, throwing all people into the sea. Once all rescued persons boarded the merchant vessel, it became clear that two children had died, and one person remained missing. The shipwrecked were at sea for four days according to their statements. The full extent of the incident is still being assessed. The German human rights commissioner, Lars Castellucci accompanied the flight of the civil aircraft today.
“This incident is the result of systematic non-assistance,” says Paul Wagner, spokesperson for Sea-Watch. “European authorities knew for almost a day that lives were at risk and chose not to rescue. This is murderous policy in action: a deliberate, planned manslaughter of children at sea.”
While European authorities ignored their duty to rescue, the Sea-Watch rescue ship Aurora remained detained in Lampedusa port. Only a four-and-a-half-hour sail from the boat in distress. Italian authorities arbitrarily blocked five civil rescue ships in the last six weeks.
Sea-Watch calls for a full investigation into the events and reiterates its demand for a state-led, civil sea rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the establishment of safe and legal passages for people migrating to the European Union.
