On board the SEA-EYE 4, Monique told her harrowing story to our crew member Fiona just before Christmas. It gives us an insight into the fate of the young woman, the dangers on the flight as well as the hell in Libya.

“My mother is from Sierra Leone and my father from Mali. I was born a bastard child. Around the age of five my father kidnapped me and we went to Mali. Then the war happened, so he left alone to the USA. I stayed with my grandmother. She mistreated me. My mother was looking for me, my mother didn’t know where I was and I had no news from my father.

In Mali, I had to get married when I was 15. I got an arranged marriage. The man who married me was beating me all day. We had three kids, the third one was born premature. I had the first one at age 15. My last child was at age 20.

I didn’t know what to do… If I stay with my husband he will beat me, if I go back to my family, they will send me away… I left from a tiny village in Mali, I had no money left. I fled my arranged marriage with one of my daughter. An old lady who was sharing an apartment with us, took care of me. Then someone told me that my mother had died. I heard she died homeless.

I met a Nigerian man on Facebook living in Belgium, we fell in love. I tried to come across the Mediterranean Sea. But then I got caught and sent to prison.

There I saw a lot of things. I don’t know why it’s like that, but the pain is too much. They mistreated me, locked me up with no food. If you fall ill, you’ll die there. And then if you want to go back home, you can’t.

They were raping girls in front of everyone.

Once they picked a girl and asked a guy to sleep with her in front of everyone. She didn’t have a choice because they had a Kalashnikov in their hands. He slept with the girl in front of everyone, only because she was black. There was a man who buried his pregnant wife with his two kids. Then he became ill… all his body was emaciated but they wouldn’t let him out because he didn’t have the money. He died in prison, he had no hope left. People who try to escape, will get shot at. In my cell, some people died there. Once there was a guy who tried to escape, they hit him so badly in front of us, all his body was covered with blood.

It’s the same ones who help you cross and then the same ones who bring you to prison. They catch you at sea, they mistreat you. They catch you at home, they mistreat you, in the streets, they mistreat you. They tell you to call home and ask for money. Asking for 1000, 1500 euros. And even if you give that sum, they can still come back. You can buy black people in prison. A guy wanted me, he wanted to have a sexual relationship. He paid 1000 euros for me to come out of prison. But I didn’t want him, so I fled.”

Monique*, 25 from Sierra Leone was rescued along with 223 people by the SEA-EYE 4 on its Christmas mission and safely brought ashore in Pozzallo on Christmas Eve.
*Name and personal data have been changed to protect her.

Malta is violating its duty to rescue boats in distress

Since the SEA-EYE 4 arrived in the Maltese search and rescue zone on Thursday, December 16, 2021, numerous reports of boats in distress have reached the rescue ship. In total, the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 223 people in four rescue operations. Among them are 29 women, 7 of whom are pregnant, and 8 children. The crew is currently looking for another boat in distress.

Although further boats carrying numerous people in acute distress have been reported at sea since yesterday, Malta has once again failed to fulfill its obligation to coordinate distress cases at sea and rescue these people. Civil sea rescue organizations are currently the only European forces looking for people and trying to bring them to safety. Since the weather is expected to deteriorate significantly soon, the chances of survival for people who are still at sea decrease significantly.

“On the one hand, I am grateful that the SEA-EYE 4 was able to save many people once again. At the same time, it is hard to bear that we have to assume that no help at all came for some of the boats in danger. Civil sea rescue capacities are important, but also limited. The cold-blooded ignorance of the EU costs us human lives – the sea-grave is growing, even if we constantly fight against it. The people who drowned in agony simply wanted a life in safety to which they were entitled – and we deny it to them. But what right do we have to elevate ourselves above these people and their fate?” says Sophie Weidenhiller, spokeswoman for Sea-Eye e. V.

The survivors on board the SEA-EYE 4 are currently being cared for and medically treated by the crew. One child has a broken arm and another has a broken finger. Two pregnant women have stomach pains and several people have had to be treated for chemical burns and hypothermia.

“It is shocking how many people flee across the Mediterranean in overcrowded, completely unsuitable boats, regardless of the dangers. And it is deeply inhuman that the EU continues to leave the rescue of these desperate people to NGOs like us. Shortly before the turn of the year, we hope that politics will finally change in 2022 and that the dying at the deadliest sea border will come to an end,” said Dr. Christine Winkelmann, Head of German Doctors e. V. The aid organization supports the Sea-Eye rescue operations financially and with medical staff and expertise.

“It is wonderful news that our alliance ship SEA-EYE 4 was already able to rescue 223 people during this mission. And a message that fits Christmas! As United4Rescue, we are particularly pleased that the SKYBIRD aircraft discovered the first two emergencies at sea – because United4Rescue only recently provided financial assistance to put this new reconnaissance aircraft into operation. We very much hope that the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 will save even more lives on this Christmas mission,” says Liza Pflaum, board member of United4Rescue.