Drei Menschen stehen auf einem Boot und ziehen an einer Leine.

The sea rescue ship brought the survivors ashore in Ravenna (Italy)

The SEA-EYE 4 left the port of Ravenna on Saturday May 25th to return to its area of operation in the central Mediterranean. Earlier that day, the crew had evacuated 52 people to safety on the Italian mainland. They had been rescued at sea on May 20th. The SEA-EYE 4 responded to a distress call from the rescue vessel MARE*GO, which had spotted an unseaworthy and overcrowded fibreglass boat. After the rescue, the Italian authorities ordered the SEA-EYE 4 to the port of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region, 900 nautical miles away.

“We have the capacity on the SEA-EYE 4 to help many more people in need. But the Piantedosi Decree is forcing us to leave the area of operation and head for a distant port under threat of penalty. Despite the obstacles, we will not stop saving lives: That’s why the SEA-EYE 4 immediately returned to the area of operation”, says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

The so-called Piantedosi Decree makes the work of civilian sea rescuers much more difficult. For example, it requires rescue vessels to sail directly to a port designated by the authorities after a rescue operation. In the past, the SEA-EYE 4 was also detained because the crew rescued other people in distress at sea despite being assigned a port. Violations are punishable by fines and detentions. The decree contradicts international maritime law, which generally requires ships to assist people in distress at sea.

Rettung SEA-EYE 4

Rescue ship MARE*GO sent out the distress call for the operation

The sea rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 rescued 52 people in the central Mediterranean on Monday evening (May 20, 2024). Two people required emergency medical treatment. The rescue operation took place in the Maltese search and rescue zone.

On Monday afternoon, the SEA-EYE 4 received a distress call from the sea rescue vessel MARE*GO from Zusammenland gUG, which had found the unseaworthy and overcrowded fibreglass boat. MARE*GO was able to equip the occupants with life jackets and stabilise the boat. As the weather was threatening to deteriorate, the crew called the SEA-EYE 4 for assistance, which arrived at the scene after a journey of around two hours. On arrival, the boat was unable to reach a safe port under its own power. At around 22:30, the SEA-EYE 4 successfully completed the rescue operation and evacuated all the people.

“When we arrived, we found the boat overcrowded and unsuitable for crossing the Mediterranean. There were 52 people on board, most of them from Syria. Our rapid arrival at the scene was crucial, as the weather conditions deteriorated significantly during the night. Although we have vulnerable people on board who need a safe place now, we were assigned Ravenna as our port of call – which means five more days in the Mediterranean for the survivors before we are finally allowed to dock”, says Julie Schweickert, head of mission on board the SEA-EYE 4.

“Of the 52 people rescued, two were initially unable to get on board independently due to severe pain and had to be lifted out of the lifeboat using a rescue seat; fortunately, the initial suspicion of head or spinal injuries was not confirmed during the examination in the on-board hospital, and their condition improved over time with pain medication. Several other patients also complained of painful bruises sustained during the rough crossing in the overcrowded boat. Due to the bad weather and high waves, many of those rescued also suffer from seasickness. Fortunately, the health checks carried out so far, which we will complete during the course of the day, have not revealed any other serious illnesses”, adds Dr. Daniela Klein, on-board doctor on the SEA-EYE 4 for German Doctors e.V.

The Italian authorities have assigned the SEA-EYE 4 to the port of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region, around 900 nautical miles away, for disembarkation. The sea rescue ship is expected to arrive there on Saturday.

Rescue Ship SEA-EYE 4

In the ongoing court proceedings, the allegations were deemed not proven

On May 14 2024, the SEA-EYE 4 set off on its mission from the port of Taranto, Italy. The Italian authorities had detained the rescue ship for 60 days and Sea-Eye e.V. filed an appeal against this. This is the longest administrative detention so far imposed on a sea rescue vessel under the so-called Piantedosi Decree. Following an initial hearing, the allegations that the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 did not follow the instructions of the so-called Libyan coastguard were deemed not proven by the presiding judge. The final decision is still pending.

“The fact that the presiding judge considers the allegations that led to our detention to be not proven shows that this is a politically motivated measure with no legal basis. Despite all the difficulties caused by the Italian government’s policy, we continue to fulfil our humanitarian responsibility, thanks, above all, to the active support we receive every day from private and institutional donors, as well as volunteers and full-time staff on shore and on board!”, emphasises Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

Daniela Klein, a doctor from German Doctors and part of the crew on the SEA-EYE 4 for the fifth time, adds: “Since my first mission in 2021, the situation for people fleeing war, torture, poverty, and rape has not improved, but, on the contrary, has worsened considerably. There are more and more dramatic rescue missions, civilian sea rescuers are massively constricted in their work by regulatory measures, and people continue to drown in the Mediterranean. My drive and motivation therefore remain unchanged: to oppose this shameful and outrageous policy, and, as a member of the crew, to help save refugees in distress from drowning at sea, and to provide them with medical assistance.”

The Piantedosi Decree, which was introduced at the beginning of 2023, makes the work of civilian sea rescuers considerably more difficult. As an example, it stipulates that rescue ships must head directly to a specified harbour after a mission and may not respond to any further distress calls. Alleged violations are penalised with fines and detentions. The reason the Italian authorities gave for the detention of the SEA-EYE 4 in March 2024 was that on March 7, the ship did not follow the instructions of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, which was pointing weapons at the rescue boat, and did not hand people seeking protection over to them. The SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 84 people indistress at sea during the operation. It was only in February of this year that Italy’s highest court of appeal classified the handover of people to the so-called Libyan coastguard as a criminal offence, as Libya is in the midst of a civil war and due to serious human rights violations such as torture, slavery, rape, and arbitrary executions is not a safe place.

The Piantedosi Decree has already resulted in the arrest of numerous sea rescue ships. Meanwhile, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 730 people have drowned or disappeared in the Mediterranean in 2024 so far.

Festsetzung Free the Fleet

Joint press release by United4Rescue, Sea-Watch, SOS Humanity and Sea-Eye

Within the last week, the Italian government has detained three NGO rescue ships flying the German flag. The Humanity 1, the Sea-Watch 5 and the Sea-Eye 4 are being prevented from carrying out their life-saving work on the basis of false accusations. For the first time, the Italian government has blocked one of the ships, the Sea-Eye 4, for 60 days, marking an escalation of its actions against the civil fleet.

In a new wave of detentions, the Italian government has blocked the rescue ships Humanity 1, Sea-Watch 5 and Sea-Eye 4 – after rescuing over 390 people in total. All three ships are part of the United4Rescue alliance supported by the German Protestant Church and over 900 partners. The 60-day detention of the Sea-Eye 4 represents an escalation of the obstruction of the civil fleet. Together with the 20-day detentions of the Sea-Watch 5 and the Humanity 1, the rescue ships are being actively kept out of the Mediterranean for a total of 100 days. Since January 2023, nine ships of the civil fleet have been detained a total of 19 times by the Italian authorities.

Each of the three current detentions is based on false accusations and unlawful demands. The Italian authorities falsely refer to uncooperative behavior by the ships’ crews towards the so-called Libyan coast guard. Yet all detentions were preceded by attempts by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard to force people in distress at sea back to Libya in violation of international law. In two cases – Humanity 1 and Sea-Eye 4 – the crews were threatened with weapons. A 17-year-old boy died on board the Sea-Watch 5 after all coastal states refused a medical evacuation.

Italy is trying by all means to stop the humanitarian operations of sea rescue organizations. The detentions are an act of political violence against tens of thousands of refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean to seek protection in Europe. We are fighting this with all legal means at our disposal, because in addition to the detentions, our rescue ship is even threatened with permanent confiscation,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

“This escalation represents a new level of criminalisation of civil sea rescue by Italy! The aim is to impede the work of the rescue organisations by any means possible. Yet every day of the detention costs human lives. We are deeply concerned about this development and as United4Rescue we stand behind every single ship with our alliance of over 900 organisations. Together we demand the immediate release of the ships!”, says Sandra Bils, board member of United4Rescue.

Co-operation with the so-called Libyan coast guard in illegal ‘pullbacks’ to Libya violates international maritime and human rights law. Libya is not a safe place for people rescued from distress at sea, as was recently confirmed once again by Italy’s highest court. At the same time, by supporting the so-called Libyan coast guard, the European Union and its member states are complicit in the most serious human rights violations at sea and in Libyan detention centers.

SOS Humanity, Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye are taking legal action against the unlawful detention of their rescue ships. The so-called Piantedosi Law, on the basis of which the ships are detained, even provides for the seizure of civil rescue ships in the event of repeated detentions.

SEA-EYE 4

60 days detention for preventing an illegal pushback

After rescuing a total of 145 people from distress at sea during two operations on 7 and 8 March, Italian authorities detained the ship SEA-EYE 4 for 60 days on 11 March and fined it 3,333 euros. The reasoning behind this is not tenable, as the SEA-EYE 4 is not permitted under international law to take part in a pushback to the civil war country of Libya. This would have been the case if it had interrupted its advanced rescue operation and handed over the 84 people seeking protection to the so-called Libyan coastguard, which had approached with weapons at the ready. Italy is once again de facto penalising rescue ships for complying with international law. Sea-Eye will once again take legal action against the blockade, as it has done in previous cases.

Italy’s top appeals court only confirmed in February this year that pushbacks to Libya are illegal under international law, thereby confirming the criminal conviction of a captain who brought refugees back to Libya in 2018. People seeking protection must not be returned to a years-long, cruel civil war from which they fled. The list of serious human rights violations (e.g. torture, slavery, rape, arbitrary executions) to which refugees are subjected there is long.

Italy is now penalising the SEA-EYE 4 and two other German sea rescue vessels that have already been detained for not following the instructions of the so-called Libyan coastguard. However, these instructions would have led to participation in pushbacks, as the so-called Libyan coastguard is taking the fleeing people back to the civil war. The illegality of this action is particularly evident in reports of human rights violations suffered by people after a pushback in Libya.

Although it is illegal and deeply inhumane to return people to a bloody conflict from which they have fled, Italy is demanding that German sea rescue organisations take part in precisely such operations. Our refusal to take part in these horrific abductions is penalised with ship blockades and fines. Yet only Germany, as the flag state, is authorised to sanction our ship for misconduct in international waters. Now that three German sea rescue ships have been detained in Italy, it is up to the German government to finally intervene and take political responsibility for the humanitarian missions of German rescue ships,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

On 7 March, the SEA-EYE 4 was the first to find the distress case which led to the arrest and was unable to make contact with the so-called Libyan coastguard during the search. When the rescue was already at an advanced stage and people had been evacuated from the unseaworthy rubber boat, two coastguard vessels appeared at the scene and demanded that the operation be cancelled. The so-called Libyan coastguard aimed weapons at the crew of the rescue boat. The crew of the SEA-EYE 4 de-escalated the situation and brought all the people on their rescue ship to safety. On 10 March, all the people who had fled were able to go ashore in Reggio Calabria, where the SEA-EYE 4 is now detained. This is the longest administrative detention of a sea rescue ship under the Piantedosi Decree to date.

144 people urgently need a safe harbour

After a previous rescue of 84 people on Thursday morning (7 March 2024), the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 was on its way to Ancona. Since then, two distress calls have interrupted the route to the assigned harbour: While the Italian Coast Guard was able to take over the rescue in the first case, the SEA-EYE 4 rescued 61 people under the most difficult conditions on Friday night. The emergency evacuation of a patient with fuel poisoning took place in the morning hours after a failed attempt at night. The situation on board remains critical, especially for two babies in a fragile condition. In light of these developments, the allocation of a closer safe harbour for the disembarkation of the now total of 144 survivors on board remains urgent.

Background:

The SEA-EYE 4 rescued 84 lives on Thursday morning and was on its way to Ancona. The Italian port city, four days away, had previously been assigned to the ship by the Italian authorities as a port for disembarking the 84 rescued people.

On Friday night (8 March 2024), the SEA-EYE 4 received another distress call via Alarmphone, which informed the authorities and the Sea-Eye rescue vessel of a call for help in the Maltese search and rescue zone. Head of Mission Julie Schweickert offered assistance to the Maltese authorities, but received no response. The Italian authorities authorised the SEA-EYE 4 to interrupt its route to Ancona in order to search for the boat in distress. Around midday on Friday (8 March 2024), the SEA-EYE 4 crew managed to find the boat with around 50 people on board. The Italian coastguard arrived at almost the same time, rescued the people and brought them to Lampedusa. The SEA-EYE 4 set course for the harbour of Ancona again. 

A few hours later, the SEA-EYE 4 received another distress call via Alarmphone. It was again a position in the Maltese search and rescue zone. As before, the Maltese rescue coordination centre could not be contacted by the SEA-EYE head of mission Julie Schweickert. With the Italian rescue coordination centre coordinating again and with permission to interrupt the approach to Ancona once more, the SEA-EYE 4 changed course in the opposite direction and the crew began the search. After around 5 hours, the boat was found in difficult conditions.

“There were 61 people in an unseaworthy wooden boat, which was taking on a lot of water due to the waves crashing over it and was in danger of capsizing. The swell made the entire rescue a huge challenge. But our lifeboat team was able to rescue everyone safely,” says Julie Schweickert, Head of Mission on board the SEA-EYE 4.

Following the rescue of 61 people, there are now 144 survivors from two maritime emergencies on board and the safe harbour of Ancona is still 4 days away. The hospital team from German Doctors e.V. and Sea-Eye e.V. is working constantly.

“We had a patient who was in very poor health. He had to be supplied with oxygen and had a body temperature of just 32 degrees. The patient was suffering from fuel poisoning because he must have inhaled too much petrol fumes. During the night, Malta sent a helicopter to evacuate the patient to Malta. However, the evacuation, which took place in difficult weather conditions, was cancelled by the pilot. It was only on Saturday morning that the crew of an Italian helicopter managed to fly the patient out to Italy,” says Dr Gerd Klausen, on-board doctor for German Doctors on board the SEA-EYE 4, adding: “We are very worried about two babies who are still not drinking well. Both are very weak. They are six and twelve months old. One baby has a fever.”

The SEA-EYE 4 resumed its course and its journey to the port of Ancona on Saturday morning (09.03.2024). However, due to several maritime emergencies since Thursday, the ship has not yet come much closer to the port of Ancona.

“84 rescued people, including families with children and babies, have already spent two nights on board. Now 61 more people have joined them. One person has been evacuated. We are now urging Italy to assign us a closer harbour. The weather will change in the next 48 hours. A rescue ship is not the right place to accommodate so many vulnerable people for up to 6 days and nights. We really urgently need the nearest safe harbour to disembark all the survivors,” says Jan Ribbeck, Director of Mission, of the ongoing operation for Sea-Eye e.V.

Rescue

Sea-Eye crew threatened with Libyan weapons during rescue

The crew of the SEA-EYE 4 rescued another 84 people from distress at sea on Thursday morning during the first mission of the current year. The so-called Libyan coast guard, acting aggressively, endangered the rescue operation and aimed weapons at the ship’s rescue boat.

At around 10 a.m., the Sea-Eye rescue vessel received a distress call from Alarmphone, which informed the relevant authorities and the SEA-EYE 4 about the call for help from a rubber boat. The SEA-EYE 4 crew located the people calling for help within an hour. The Head of Mission asked the Italian authorities to coordinate the distress at sea. However, the Italian authorities insisted that Libya was responsible, even though, according to their own statements, no communication with the Libyan authorities was possible at the time. They asked Head of Mission Julie Schweickert to continue trying in Libya herself. However, this was unsuccessful.

In the meantime, the crew members of the MOCHARA rescue boat provided life jackets to the people on the rubber boat. Two people were rescued from the water by the crew of the rescue boat. A total of 84 people were evacuated onto the SEA-EYE 4. During the evacuation, two ships of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard approached at high speed. Head of Mission Julie Schweickert describes “super aggressive” behavior by the Libyans. During the rescue, the weapons of a Libyan ship were aimed at the crew of the rescue boat.

“It is unacceptable that our crew has to look down the barrel of a gun during their humanitarian work. The brutal and ruthless behavior of the so-called Libyan coast guard has nothing to do with sea rescue. Cooperation with these violent and armed militias must be stopped by the EU states before humanitarian aid workers come to harm,” demands Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

The joint medical team from German Doctors e.V. and Sea-Eye e.V. immediately began providing medical treatment and care for the rescued people.

“Among those rescued are numerous women and families with children. Four children are not even 2 years old. We had to provide one baby with oxygen for a short time. We are glad that we were able to stabilize the children quickly and save so many people,” says Dr Gerd Klausen, on-board doctor for German Doctors on the SEA-EYE 4.

Ammna Bhati, paediatric nurse from London (UK), added that “many people are hypothermic and need treatment.” 

In the afternoon, the Italian authorities directed the SEA-EYE 4 to the port of Ancona, some 800 nautical miles away. The ship will need around 4 days to get there and will therefore ask the Italian authorities for a closer port.

SEA-EYE 4 crew rescues 57 people. Two people did not survive the flight.

On Tuesday afternoon, Alarmphone informed the relevant authorities and the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 of an emergency at sea. A boat with 59 people called for help in the Maltese search and rescue zone. The crew of the SEA-EYE 4 was able to find the boat on Tuesday evening after a five-hour search at around 7 pm.

It was an overcrowded, two-storey wooden boat. The initial assessment by the crew of the MOCHARA lifeboat revealed that four people were unconscious below deck. In order for the rescue crew to reach them, the people on the upper deck had to be evacuated first. In the end, two people could only be rescued dead.

As the state of health of other people deteriorated drastically, the head of operations, Julie Schweickert, asked the rescue control centres in Rome and Valletta to evacuate four survivors. The seriously injured people showed symptoms of severe fuel poisoning. The victims, who had been below deck on the boat, were unable to escape the toxic fuel vapours and had lost consciousness as a result. The joint medical team from German Doctors e.V. and Sea-Eye e.V. was unable to determine a clear cause of death for the two deceased persons.

We in the medical team are very sad that two people did not survive the flight. After the urgent evacuation of one patient by helicopter to Malta, we worked intensively all night in the on-board hospital to stabilise the condition of three other seriously injured patients. We are pleased that we were able to do so until the evacuation of the three people in the morning hours on Lampedusa,” says Dr Gerd Klausen, on-board doctor on the SEA-EYE 4 for German Doctors e.V.

The Maltese armed forces evacuated a seriously injured person by helicopter at around 2 a.m. on Wednesday night. The SEA-EYE 4 then followed an Italian coastguard ship to Lampedusa to evacuate three more emergency patients.

Our operational year started with a very tragic rescue mission. It is important to realise how cruel it is to be trapped below deck and exposed to toxic fumes. The rescue of the survivors and the prompt evacuation of the seriously injured patients saved the lives of most of the people on board. We are incredibly saddened by the loss of two lives for whom all help came too late. Our thoughts are with their families,” says Jan Ribbeck, Head of Search and Rescue operations at Sea-Eye e.V.

The Italian authorities have assigned the SEA-EYE 4 to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle to disembark the remaining 53 survivors and two fatalities on board. The SEA-EYE 4 is expected to reach Porto Empedocle at around 10 a.m. on Thursday.

Municipalities and cities support Sea-Eye

On Friday morning (23.02.2024), the rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 departed from the Spanish port of Burriana on its first mission of the year. The ship has completed a regular maintenance interval there in recent weeks.

The first mission is supported by a municipal grant of €20,000 from the city of Osnabrück. Meanwhile, the city of Mannheim extended its municipal sponsorship of the SEA-EYE 4 and doubled the amount of funding from €5,000 to €10,000 per year. The city of Bern decided to support the Regensburg-based sea rescue organization Sea-Eye e.V. with 70,000 Swiss francs this year. Bern is thus the first city outside Germany to decide to sponsor a Sea-Eye ship and will hold an event in Bern on 27.02.2024.

The support from the municipalities gives us great backing. We are very grateful for this. The municipal sponsorship is a concrete way out of an ongoing solidarity crisis. The municipalities make it clear that our humanitarian work continues to be supported by a broad social alliance,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

The municipal funding contrasts with a law passed by the federal government in January. Experts recently explicitly warned that the Repatriation Improvement Act could criminalize and prosecute the rescue of unaccompanied children. Sea-Eye therefore wrote to the Federal Minister of Justice and the Federal Minister of the Interior this Wednesday asking for legal clarification.

The organizations Sea-Eye e.V. from Regensburg and German Doctors e.V. from Bonn have decided to continue their cooperation this year. This marks the fourth year of cooperation between the two organizations. “On the first mission of the SEA-EYE 4 this year, our German Doctor Gerd Klausen will work with colleagues from the medical crew on board to ensure the health of those rescued in the Mediterranean. We are delighted to have Gerd Klausen on board, a very experienced doctor who is involved in sea rescue on a voluntary basis and who is doing such a valuable job for the people,” says Dr. Harald Kischlat, Chairman of German Doctors e.V.

The SEA-EYE 4 is expected to reach its operational area in the middle of next week.

Rettung

Donations are needed for 9 planned missions in 2024

On the afternoon of Boxing Day (26th December 2023), the crew of the sea rescue ship SEA-EYE 4 rescued a total of 106 people from two different boats. Both boats were spotted by the ship’s crew itself. The distress cases occurred in the Maltese search and rescue zone, south of Lampedusa. The ship’s head of mission then informed the responsible authorities.

Among those rescued are 40 minors. The youngest of them are five and six years old and are accompanied by their parents. A 13-year-old boy from Guinea and a 14-year-old boy from Mali fled alone. The people on both boats stated that they had fled towards Europe via Tunisia on Tuesday night (26th December 2023). They had fled from Eritrea, Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, Gambia and Senegal, among others.

The Maltese Rescue Coordination Centre responsible did not respond. The Italian Rescue Coordination Centre assigned the SEA-EYE 4 to the Italian port of Brindisi to disembark the rescued people. The passage will take around three days. The SEA-EYE 4’s head of mission expects the ship to arrive in Brindisi on Friday afternoon.

Rettung

The 5th mission of the year ends at the port of Brindisi. One mission was cancelled due to a detention by the Italian coastguard. In total, the SEA-EYE 4 was detained three times in 2023. All three detentions were based on the allegations of a violation of the so-called Piantedosi Law of February 2023. The joint crews of Sea-Eye e.V., German Doctors e.V. and Refugee Rescue nevertheless managed to save 504 lives. The three organisations will continue to work together in the coming year to save as many people as possible from drowning.

“Yesterday, while we were celebrating Christmas, 106 people were rescued from the Mediterranean by the crew of the SEA-EYE 4. As Nour Hanna, our volunteer doctor on board, told us, fortunately none of them were in a critical medical situation. The fact that so many families with young children choose this dangerous escape route makes us realise how important it is to continue our cooperation with Sea-Eye and Refugee Rescue. It guarantees medical care during sea rescues,” said Dr Harald Kischlat, Chairman of German Doctors.

Rettung

Sea-Eye plans to carry out a total of 9 missions in the new year, as no major shipyard operations need to be taken into account. However, the donations are not yet sufficient to achieve this goal. So far, only the first two missions of the first quarter have been approved by the organisation’s executive board. Further support still needs to be found.

“We have a ship ready to go and a strong team on land and at sea. Now it’s just a matter of being able to finance all the missions in the forthcoming year. We are aware of the increasing political headwinds. However, we will not give up, we will keep relying on the solidarity of our supporters and together we will continue to fight for every single human life,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

SEA-EYE 4