Rachele is a legal specialist and part of Sea-Watch’s Italian team. For 20 months, she has been observing how the migration policy situation has worsened since Giorgia Meloni took office. Although the “sea blockade” Meloni announced during her election campaign has not been possible thanks to current international law, there is still great cause for…
DetailsThe 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…
Details14 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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsInsights into Frontex’ ongoing and unpunished aerial complicity in human rights violations in the Central Mediterranean Sea – Spring 2024 In its daily work in the Central Mediterranean, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, primarily aims to hinder people from arriving in Europe, no matter the costs. In order to do so,…
DetailsThe 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:…
DetailsDownload Full Report This factsheet outlines a summary of the distress cases witnessed January – March 2024 by Airborne with Seabird 1 and Seabird 2.1 In January – March we conducted 40 operations, with a total flight time of 205 hours and 38 minutes. We spotted around 2.755 persons in distress aboard 47 different…
DetailsToday, Wednesday, the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg ruled in the Sea-Watch v Frontex case. While failing to establish transparency and accountability, the Court found that Frontex wrongfully kept more than 100 photos secret. These could prove the border agency’s involvement in a human rights violation in the Mediterranean. In April 2022, Sea-Watch, with…
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