July 22, 2024 On Monday, we witnessed again an illegal interception of about 70 people, preceded by the repeated ignoring of the mayday relays. About 70 people tried to flee Libya in hopes of reaching Europe. We knew about their possible position and called the nearby merchant vessel MARIDIVE 703, asking whether the crew…
The Airborne Annual Report 2023 provides an overview of the human rights violations we have documented in the central Mediterranean. The report analyzes the year 2023 in terms of migration policy, with a focus on the externalization of European borders and the control over them. Using exemplary cases, the main findings from 2023 are…
14 June 2024 – Over the weekend of 7th-8th June 2024, a new bloody catastrophe was revealed in the central Mediterranean when at least 17 bodies were spotted floating at sea. Twelve of them were retrieved by civilian Search and Rescue ships Geo Barents and Ocean Viking. The deaths indicate a shipwreck in which an…
The crew of the Seabird 2 aircraft of the sea rescue organization Sea-Watch discovered the bodies of 11 people floating in international waters off the Libyan coast during their monitoring flight yesterday. During today’s mission, the crew discovered another body. The exact circumstances are still unclear. During their nine-hour observation flight, which started yesterday morning…
The Italian aviation authority ENAC is attempting to prevent the documentation of human rights violations in the Mediterranean. On Monday, the authority published an order banning the use of NGO aircraft over the Mediterranean. Sea-Watch is nevertheless continuing its monitoring flights and took off from Lampedusa airport shortly after 1 p.m. today. March 2024:…
