“Saving all lives, on land and at sea, is possible and it is our duty.” Two days ago, on April 7, the Italian ministries of transport, health, interior, and foreign affairs issued an urgent decree¹ claiming that Italy, due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, would not be able to provide the ‘places of safety’ obligatory…
DetailsEuropean Union Member States found something they agree on this morning when Ministers from various migration departments formed a Working Group to discuss the impact of COVID19 on some of Europe’s most vulnerable residents. “We have a longstanding track record of washing our hands of this type of responsibility” commented the Working Group’s spokesperson. She…
DetailsResisting illegal push-backs to Libya is not a crime! One year ago, a rubber boat with over 100 people on board left the coast of Libya to reach safety in Europe. Although they were found and rescued by the merchant vessel El Hiblu 1, its crew was ordered by European authorities to return the rescued…
DetailsWhile the Corona crisis is keeping Europe in suspense, the suffering of those seeking international protection and the humanitarian disaster at Europe’s borders are fading into the background. In Camp Moria on Lesbos alone, designed for a maximum of 3,000 people, over 20,000 people are currently living without adequate access to water, basic hygiene facilities…
DetailsThe “Poseidon” will soon be saving lives in the Mediterranean In a covert bidding process, the alliance United4Rescue and the sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch were able to purchase the former research vessel “Poseidon”. The hashtag of the alliance #WirSchickenEinSchiff („We send a ship“) is to become reality this spring. Until the end of 2019,…
DetailsThursday morning, the Sea-Watch 3 was alerted by our civil search aircraft Moonbird of multiple distress cases and immediately engaged in the successful rescue of 60 survivors on board a rubber boat in international waters. Before conducting a second rescue of 17 people, Sea-Watch found an empty fibreglass boat and witnessed 150 more people being…
DetailsThe rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3 left the port of Licata (Sicily) this morning and is on its way to the search and rescue zone north of Libyan waters. The organisation had won an appeal in an Italian civil court against the illegal seizure of the ship, which had been detained since the end of June…
DetailsSea-Watch has won its appeal in an Italian civil court against the unlawful seizure of its ship Sea-Watch 3, which has not been allowed to sail since 29 June. Today’s verdict confirms that there is no legal basis for the authorities to keep our ship in port, an act Sea-Watch has long claimed was solely…
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