| Far from any major public attention, the humanitarian situation in the central Mediterranean has hit new and sad lows in recent weeks. The civil rescue ships SEA-WATCH 3, AITA MARI and GEO BARENTS were able to save more than 800 lives within a few days. At this hour, the AITA MARI and the GEO BARENTS were not assigned ports yet to disembark the survivors. This year, significantly more people have already died fleeing to Europe than last year.
The so-called Libyan Coast Guard has stopped more than 90,000 people from fleeing from Libya via the Med since it was first supported by the EU member states. An Italian captain has now been sentenced to imprisonment by an Italian court for precisely this reason, because in 2018 he extradited around 100 people to the so-called Libyan coast guard. While captains are rightly convicted of such crimes, the EU member states have systematically organized precisely such push-backs and outsourced them to the so-called Libyan coast guard. Sea-Eye therefore calls on the future federal government to end its cooperation with these Libyan militias and to create safe passages. Germany can no longer take part in the criminalization of people seeking protection, leave them in the hands of people smugglers or hand them over to the so-called Libyan coast guard. We are calling on Berlin to start a foreign policy that is unconditionally based on human rights. But I also want to send you some good news. The SEA-EYE 4 left the port of Palermo on Saturday evening and set course for the Libyan search and rescue zone for the third time this year. At the beginning of the year, we assumed we could undertake three rescue missions. Thanks to your support, we have achieved this goal and are now even planning a fourth mission to start on December 6th. This goal, too, can only be achieved with your help. Please support us in this. My team will do its part and do everything possible in the coming weeks to organize the resources for a fourth mission so that the search and rescue zone does not become an unprotected death zone in December. |
Gorden Isler
Chairman of Sea-Eye e. V.
October 2021