SEA-EYE 5 returns to operation

After being detained for 20 days and after cancelled fundings by the German government, the civil rescue ship returns to the Mediterranean Sea.

Around three weeks after the German government has announced that it was cancelling financial support for civil sea rescue operations, the rescue ship SEA-EYE 5 is once again setting sail for the Mediterranean. Previously, over 80,000 people had petitioned for support to be reinstated in the federal budget.

“In a short period of time, many people have shown their solidarity and have allowed the SEA-EYE 5 to set sail again. We are grateful for that! However, this strong signal from civil society contrasts sharply with the attitude of the German government. By joining a brutal EU border regime and therefore withdrawing from responsibility, the government is leaving the rescue of human lives solely to civil sea rescuers and the countries bordering the Mediterranean. With its policy, the German government is making escape routes deadlier and abandoning humanitarian aid organisations. This is no inadvertent political blind flight. It is a wilful breach of fundamental humanitarian values,” explains Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye.

“Especially in times like these, we are committed to our cooperation with Sea-Eye and hence to civil sea rescue. By deploying our doctors on board, we are continuing to provide urgently needed medical care for people in distress at sea,” emphasises Dr Christine Winkelmann, Director of Projekte German Doctors e. V.

This is the first mission for the SEA-EYE 5 after a 20-day detention in Pozzallo, Sicily. The Italian authorities had imposed this following the rescue of 65 people. Sea-Eye has already filed a lawsuit against the detention and the associated fine. The organisation has won three lawsuits against unlawful detentions by the Italian authorities in 2024 alone.