According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 30,000 people have gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014. Sea-Eye calls on the EU to take responsibility.

The number of people missing in the Mediterranean has now passed the 30,000 mark, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. Statistics show that almost 80 % of the missing are from the central Mediterranean. The most common cause of death is drowning. Many of the victims are children. In 2024 alone, more than 1,000 people went missing on the deadliest escape route.

“Instead of taking action against aid organisations, the European Union and its member states must finally face up to their responsibilities in the Mediterranean. At the moment, instead of tackling the causes of flight and ensuring safe escape routes, they are making our humanitarian work even more difficult: through detentions, the allocation of distant ports or stricter conditions for civilian rescue vessels. Court rulings such as the one in Reggio Calabria clearly show that the measures taken against our operations are an abuse of state power. The EU is now responsible for over 30,000 deaths in the Mediterranean. We finally need to move away from this brutal European border regime towards a migration policy based on human rights,” demands Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye.

Between June 2023 and June 2024 alone, the SEA-EYE 4 was detained in Italy for a total of 120 days. The Regensburg-based organisation has already filed several lawsuits against the unlawful detention. On June 5th, the court in Reggio Calabria upheld a complaint by Sea-Eye and declared the 60-day administrative detention of the SEA-EYE 4 in March 2024 to be unlawful.

In response to the ongoing crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, Sea-Eye e.V. is sending a former all-weather lifeboat to the Mediterranean this year. Oscar-nominated actress Sandra Hüller christened the rescue ship, now named the SEA-EYE 5, on Monday.

After one of the rescue operations, the so-called Libyan coastguard repeatedly tried to intimidate the crew of the civilian rescue vessel

During three operations on July 16th and 17th, 2024, the SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 31 people from distress at sea: At around five in the morning on Tuesday, the rescue ship’s crew spotted and evacuated three people in a small wooden fishing boat, which had neither life-saving equipment nor modern navigation equipment. While waiting for instructions from the Italian authorities, the crew spotted another wooden boat in distress around midday and rescued 20 people, including a mother and her baby. The following day, early in the afternoon, the SEA-EYE 4 responded to a distress call from an aircraft that had spotted a fibreglass boat with eight people in distress and also brought them to safety.

“Some of those rescued are in poor health, and a few are in critical condition. These people need medical attention as soon as possible. It is an imposition on them that we have again been assigned such a distant port,” says Ayesha Sattar, on-board doctor on the SEA-EYE 4 for German Doctors e.V.

Shortly after the second rescue on July 16th, the so-called Libyan coastguard arrived and tried to intimidate the crew of the SEA-EYE 4:

“After we had rescued the people, the so-called Libyan coastguard set fire to the empty boat and circled us twice with sirens blaring. They asked us to leave the area – even though they are not legally authorised to do so in international waters – and followed us for a long time. This is a clear intention to intimidate us and to cause more distress to people already in a vulnerable situation. These actions have nothing to do with assisting people in distress at sea”, says Julie Schweickert, head of mission on board the SEA-EYE 4, describing the situation.

The so-called Libyan Coast Guard intercepts refugees in the Mediterranean and returns them to civil war-torn Libya. It is funded in part by the European Union. UN experts have already accused the EU of aiding and abetting the crimes of the so-called Libyan coastguard.

The so-called Libyan coastguard repeatedly acts in an extremely aggressive and violent manner, which has already led to the death of people. In Libya, refugees are threatened with imprisonment in so-called detention camps, where they are subjected to serious human rights violations.

The Italian authorities have ordered the SEA-EYE 4 to disembark the survivors at the port of Ortona, in the province of Chieti. In doing so, the authorities are accepting that the SEA-EYE 4 will have to travel a long way and will be absent from the area of operation for days at a time when its rescue capabilities are urgently needed. The rescue vessel is expected to arrive in port on Saturday evening.

The survivors included a mother with her baby and a woman nine months pregnant.

At noon on Sunday (July 7th 2024), the crew of the civilian rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 responded to a distress call provided by Alarmphone and evacuated 46 people from a rubber boat in distress. A few hours later, the vessel received another Alarmphone message. This time, the RESQSHIP sailing vessel NADIR was first on the scene, stabilized the unseaworthy rubber boat, which was losing air and partially filled with water, distributed life jackets and secured 22 people on life rafts, including a mother and her baby. When SEA-EYE 4 arrived around 7 p.m., it picked up all 60 survivors. At 2 a.m. on July 8th, the rescue vessel reached a fiberglass boat and rescued another 10 people. On Monday morning, the crew, together with the crew of the NADIR, brought a total of 58 people to safety on board of the SEA-EYE 4 from an overcrowded wooden boat that had already taken on water. The operation was completed at 7 a.m. Shortly after noon, the vessel found another rubber boat in distress and rescued 57 people, including a heavily pregnant woman. 

“Five rescues in 24 hours: That shows the state of emergency in the Mediterranean at the moment – and how important it is that we are there to save lives. But by sending civilian rescue ships to distant ports – we have to calculate six days for the journey to and from Genoa alone – we are losing valuable time in the search and rescue zone, during which we cannot help people in need. This policy can have fatal consequences for people seeking protection,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

“We had a pregnant woman on board who needed urgent medical attention. Many of those rescued have spent days in the Mediterranean and are weakened and severely dehydrated. Some are suffering from fuel burns, chemical burns that occur when gasoline mixes with seawater and then comes into contact with human skin,” adds Ayesha Sattar, on-board doctor on the SEA-EYE 4 for German Doctors e.V.

Following the instructions of the Italian authorities, the SEA-EYE 4 has handed over the people rescued during the last operation to the Italian Coast Guard. The vessel is now on its way to the port of Genoa, about 600 nautical miles away, where it is expected to arrive on July 11th. There, the people from the first four operations will be allowed to leave the rescue ship.

Judge declares 60-day detention in March 2024 unlawful

In a hearing on Wednesday morning, the court in Reggio Calabria ruled in favour of Sea-Eye e.V.’s lawsuit and declared the 60-day detention of the SEA-EYE 4 in March 2024 to be unlawful. The judge found the allegations that the crew of the ship had not followed the instructions of the so-called Libyan coastguard to be unproven.

“The Reggio Calabria judgement is a significant victory for us – and for all other sea rescue organisations! It clearly shows that the detention of civilian rescue ships is an abuse of state powers. We now urgently need the political support of the German government, because Italy is also disregarding the rights of our flag state with its unlawful detentions of German rescue ships. We urge the responsible ministries to take the judgement as an opportunity to campaign for an end to this practice in Italy”, says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

The reason given by the Italian authorities for the detention of the SEA-EYE 4 was that on March 7th, the ship did not follow the instructions of the so-called Libyan coastguard, who, according to eyewitnesses, were pointing weapons at the rescue boat. The crew also did not hand over the people seeking protection to them. The SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 84 people from distress at sea during the operation. It was only in February of this year that the Italian Supreme Court of Appeal classified the handover of people to the so-called Libyan coastguard as a criminal offence, as the civil war country of Libya is not a safe place due to serious human rights violations such as torture, slavery, rape and arbitrary executions. The 60-day detention of the SEA-EYE 4 was the longest administrative detention imposed on a sea rescue vessel to date under the so-called Piantedosi Decree. The law, which came into force in Italy at the beginning of 2023, requires ships to contact the Italian rescue coordination centre immediately after a rescue and to be assigned a port without responding to further distress calls.

Between June 2023 and June 2024 alone, the SEA-EYE 4 was detained in Italy for a total of 120 days. Sea-Eye has already filed several lawsuits against unlawful detentions. The judgements are often delayed by several years: a total of five further court cases are currently pending. The processes are associated with high costs and additional effort for the organisation. The next court hearing for one of the ongoing proceedings will take place on June 20th – the case concerns a detention of the ALAN KURDI, which took place over almost four years ago. The rescue ship was in operation for the organisation before the SEA-EYE 4 and rescued a total of 927 people from distress at sea between 2018 and 2021.

After the rescue, the Italian authorities ordered the vessel to the port of Genoa, more than 600 nautical miles away

On the night of May 29th 2024, the Alarm-Phone-Initiative informed the authorities and the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 of a maritime emergency in the Maltese search and rescue zone. At around 2am, the crew of SEA-EYE 4 reached the rubber boat in distress and evacuated the 51 people on board.

“Immediately after arriving on the ship, most of the rescued people were very exhausted, hypothermic and suffering from seasickness. Now their condition has improved significantly and all those rescued are at least physically stable and in relatively good condition”, says Dr. Daniela Klein, on-board doctor on the SEA-EYE 4 for German Doctors e.V.

Julie Schweickert, Head of Mission on board the SEA-EYE 4, emphasises: “We found an overcrowded rubber boat that was being tossed back and forth by the waves. The rescue went without any incidents and we are now on our way to Genoa in north-west Italy with the 51 survivors. We expect to arrive there on Sunday –  that’s almost four days that we spend sailing to a distant port. Although there are enough ports of safety in the south of Italy, able to receive people on the move and provide the right services to them, we have to leave the search and rescue zone and cannot respond to further emergencies.”

The Italian authorities repeatedly assign harbors with long journey times to civilian sea rescue vessels.  After the SEA-EYE 4 last rescued 52 people from distress at sea on May 20th, the ship had to head for Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region. The port was around 900 nautical miles away from the scene of the operation.