On Sunday, 7 June 2026, at least eleven people died in a shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean, around 45 nautical miles off Malta, within the Maltese search and rescue area. Around 60 people were reportedly in distress. When the Sea-Watch monitoring aircraft Seabird 1 arrived on scene, no remnants of the boat were visible. Survivors…
Berlin/Lampedusa, June 4, 2026 — Sea-Watch is putting a new rescue vessel into service: With the Aurora 2, the organization is responding to the repeated detentions of civilian rescue ships by the Italian authorities. Now, Sea-Watch will remain operational even when one of its ships is detained. While one ship is blocked in port, the other will…
Since the implementation of the Piantedosi Decree-Law on 2 January 2023, Italian authorities have issued detention orders against 41 humanitarian rescue ships, totaling 1,075 days – almost three years. Italy’s blockade of rescue ships in ports has prevented them from assisting people in distress in the Central Mediterranean, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the…
Saturday, 16 May – Italy has opened a criminal investigation against the captain of the Sea-Watch 5 with the accusation of “aiding and abetting unauthorized immigration”. The Sea-Watch 5 had entered the port of Brindisi on Friday morning at around 11 a.m. with 166 rescued people on board. The investigation represents an absurd escalation: Days…
13 May – In response to the attack on the Sea-Watch 5 on Monday, 11 May 2026, the European Commission stated at its press conference on Wednesday, 12 May 2026, that EU cooperation with Libyan actors “prevented further violence.” Sea-Watch condemns this portrayal as a grotesque distortion of reality. Without the political, financial, and operational…
