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Airborne Factsheet Merchant Vessels 2020

Merchant Vessel Involvement in Sea Rescue Operations Overview of relevant cases spotted by Airborne Operations in 2020 Due to the seizure of NGO vessels and the lack of a state-led European Search-and-Rescue (SAR) programme, operations which retrieve people from distress at sea currently rely primarily on the shipping industry. Captains and crews of merchant vessels…

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Airborne Monthly Factsheet October 2020

This factsheet outlines a summary of the distress cases witnessed in October 2020 by Sea-Watch’s Airborne crew from the aircraft Moonbird and Seabird.* In October 2020, due to criminalization measures against Moonbird, we were only able to fly 7 missions, with a total flight time of 61 hours and 05 minutes. We spotted around 217…

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Crimes of Malta 10

#CrimesOfMalta: The longest stand-off in the history of the Maltese rescue zone: European authorities deny a port of safety for more than five weeks to a merchant vessel that complied with its duty to rescue. 04.08.2020 – 12.09.2020: Watch The Med – Alarmphone was called by 27 people on board a boat in distress and…

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3 years later: remembering November 6th, 2017

On 6 November, 2017, the so-called Libyan Coast Guard caused the death of at least 20 people through the violent intervention against a boat in distress. The Sea-Watch 3 is witnessing the incident live at that time and tries to calm down the chaotic situation while dozens of people are already in the water. Our…

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Crimes of Malta 09

#CrimesOfMalta: Two boats are simultaneously in severe distress in the Maltese rescue zone. While 108 people on one boat are being rescued by a civilian oil tanker, 72 people on the other boat are being pushed back to Libya by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. 24.07.2020: An inflatable boat with 108 persons as well as…

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