Once again it was reported that a boat with up to 400 refugees on board has sunk off the Greek coast. So far 78 people have been recovered dead and 104 rescued. The worst must be assumed for the remaining people.

According to media reports, the maritime emergency had already been found the day before by a Frontex aircraft. Nevertheless, the help for dozens of people came much too late. Once again it shows that Frontex is supposed to stop people seeking protection at the EU’s external border and is not there to protect human lives.

These people, who fled from the civil war country Libya, drowned at a time when EU is massively strengthening its isolation and Italy is detaining three rescue ships, including the SEA-EYE 4. For years, Sea-Eye has been demanding that the human right to life and the right to asylum be respected. For this, it is indispensable that safe escape routes are finally established.

Italian coast guard punishes SEA-EYE 4 with 20 days administrative detention for saving 32 lives

On Friday evening, the Italian Coast Guard told the Italian press that the German rescue ships SEA-EYE 4 and MARE*GO have been detained for 20 days. Shortly after, Sea-Eye was also informed, with a reference to a new Italian law of Feb. 24, 2023, that the SEA-EYE 4 will be detained for 20 days in Ortona for saving 32 lives in a rescue operation.

According to the Italian Coast Guard, the reason for the detention is that after rescuing 17 people in the Libyan search and rescue zone, the vessel rescued 32 more people in the Maltese search and rescue zone and did not approach the port of Ortona as soon as possible. The SEA-EYE 4 stopped its approach to Ortona on Tuesday evening and turned around because there was a distress call from a boat with more than 400 people in the Maltese search and rescue zone. The boat was eventually spotted by the civilian search aircraft SEABIRD. The operator organization Sea-Watch reported it on Twitter. Since no state actor confirmed the coordination of the maritime emergency and Malta has not coordinated maritime emergencies of people seeking protection in the Maltese search and rescue zone for many months, the additional rescue mission for Sea-Eye was without alternative.

While searching for the 400 people, the SEA-EYE 4 received a distress call from a sailboat that had discovered 32 people on an unseaworthy boat. The Sea-Eye rescue vessel then brought the people on board to safety.

On Wednesday night, the SEA-EYE 4 continued to search for the 400 people, who finally reached the Italian search and rescue zone under their own power. They were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard only shortly before reaching Sicily.

“It is therefore wrong for the Italian Coast Guard to claim that a patrol boat was already on its way. The people first had to reach the Italian search and rescue zone under their own power in order to receive help there. To punish us now for complying with international laws is justified solely on the basis of the new Italian law, which serves to quickly remove civilian rescue ships from the area of operation and to let them call at far-away ports in order to reduce the arrivals of people seeking protection as much as possible,” says Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

The detention of the SEA-EYE 4 now prevents another rescue mission of the ship, although the current year is deadlier and more dangerous for people seeking protection than the previous five years.

“Italy’s new strategy is perfidious and transparent. The long journeys to assigned, distant ports will always mean that we have to decide on the way there whether to respond to more incoming distress calls. Of course we do, and this then leads to accusations that we are breaking Italian laws. Even though these laws are only a few months old, this creates the public impression that our action is illegal. It is another reprehensible attempt to criminalize sea rescue and flight itself in order to justify ever more brutal state action,” Isler continues.

SEA-EYE 4 rescued another 32 lives on Tuesday evening

On Tuesday evening, the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 rescued another 32 people from an unseaworthy wooden boat. The distress case had been reported earlier by a yacht. At that time, the SEA-EYE 4 was already searching for a distress case in the Maltese SAR zone (search and rescue zone), where around 400 people were in danger of their lives on board a large wooden boat. The completely overloaded wooden boat had been discovered by the civilian search aircraft SEABIRD after it had sent a distress call. The operator of the search plane, Sea-Watch, documented the sighting on Twitter.

The wooden boat with 400 people on board could not be found by the SEA-EYE 4 in the night of Wednesday in the large search area. Fortunately, the people reached the Italian SAR zone under their own power and were rescued there by the Italian Coast Guard on Wednesday morning. Malta had completely ignored the hundreds of people in danger of their lives and did not coordinate the maritime emergency, although the people were in distress for many hours in the Maltese SAR zone and Malta was undoubtedly in charge.

“The intervention of the Italian Coast Guard shows that the rescue was absolutely necessary. One must realize that no European authority would allow such a ship to leave a European port in order to reach any other place by sea. These people were in the greatest danger from the moment they set sail. The many deaths in the shipwreck off Crotone earlier this year show the terrible consequences when state actors react too late. It is a scandal that Malta has for a long time not carried out rescue operations in its own search and rescue zone for people on the move,” says Jan Ribbeck, director of mission of the ongoing SEA-EYE 4 mission.

When SEABIRD reported the distress call, the SEA-EYE 4 was on its way to Ortona with 17 people who had already been rescued from a wooden boat on Sunday. The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre assigned the port, about 1,300 nautical miles away, to the ship immediately after the rescue of the 17 people.

Despite successfully rescuing a total of 49 lives, Sea-Eye now faces heavy penalties. This is because the Italian government passed a law on February 24 that does not easily allow rescue ships to carry out several rescues in a row.

“The obligation under international law to come to the aid of people in distress at sea outweighs national laws. If Sea-Eye is now being punished, it is primarily because Maltese authorities are no longer fulfilling their coordinating duties and people seeking protection are being left alone in the Maltese search and rescue zone. On our ship’s hull is written the promise #LeaveNoOneToDie. It is not an empty promise. That is why we turned the ship around on the way to Ortona, which saved the lives of 32 people,” said Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye e. V..

Doctors Without Borders’ GEO BARENTS has already been sanctioned this year with such a fine of €10,000 and a detention of the vessel for 30 days. Sea-Eye now fears that further civilian resources of the organization will be damaged by government restrictions. The current missions are much more costly financially anyway, because since the end of 2022 Italy has always assigned far-away ports to the civilian sea rescue ships in order to keep the ships out of the area of operation.

On board SEA-EYE 4, a young man from Bangladesh told our crew member Fiona why he left his country and the dangers he faced in Libya. The following report is based on two conversations documented with audio recordings and notes.

I was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a family of 5. I came here alone.

I have many problems back home and I think about it constantly… Life in Bangladesh is difficult. If you are born poor, you stay poor, even if you work hard. I’m responsible for my family as I’m the only son, I have to provide for them and take care of them.

Both of my parents can’t work anymore. My mother had a job in a garments factory but she became very ill and my father is too old to work. He is a good man and a good farmer but the work is becoming too hard for him.

My two sisters would like to study, in Bangladesh you can find a decent job if you get a school diploma. I don’t want them to work in the fields… but we have no money, we can’t even eat properly. Two bags of rice cost half of what I make in a month.

Since covid happened, the situation in Bangladesh has deteriorated, climate change is also affecting us a lot. My mother told me to go to Libya because she believed that I could make good money there, get a good job with a good salary. She sold the family gold jewellery to pay for my plane ticket to Libya.

I do not know how much my mother paid but I heard some people spent 300000 taka (3000 dollars) to smugglers. We travelled through Dubai. When we arrived at the airport in Libya, we called a phone number which was given to us in Bangladesh, then some men came and brought us to a warehouse. We were told we would sleep there for 200 dinar per month.

My mother was wrong, Libya is a dangerous place…about 95 % of bad people and 5 % of good. I have spent one year there before the boat crossing. I worked in housekeeping with eight Bangladeshi, three Sudanese and four Egyptians. Our boss was a wicked man. He would not pay the wages. If you refused to work, he would beat you or threaten to kill you with a gun to your head. I worked for five months without being paid, I was originally promised 1200 dinar per month.

After some time, some of my friends began talking about going to Italy, getting a small boat with a few people, about twenty-five. We had a connection through a taxi driver, a good man, with the ‘Libyan mafia’ to buy a boat. The boat along with the satellite, gps and lifejackets would cost 12000 dinar. It took us two months to gather the money.

We left on the 5th of May, at 10 pm, to avoid the coast guards.

A few hours later, around 2 am, water suddenly began to get inside. The boat was faulty, there was a hole inside, we tried to fix it as much as possible but the water was stronger.

Then we saw the lights of a big cargo ship about 2 km away. We called them for help. The captain of the cargo contacted the Italian coastguards, but they were 445 km away. We called several ships for help, but nobody answered. I prayed for our lives. Finally, BSG Bahamas intervened and told us that the Sea-Eye 4 boat would come to rescue us.

I’m alive, by Allah’s grace but I’m sad because I miss my family. I haven’t seen them in one year. My phone fell in the water and I have no contact with them since leaving Libya.

It’s my life. My family is my dream. I want to buy a big house for them, a big wedding for my sisters. I wish for a wife and many children.

In the first of two rescues during the night from Thursday to Friday, all help came too late for two people. The crew of the SEA-EYE 4 could only recover their bodies, including the mother of a baby, who is now being cared for on board the rescue ship.

These were dramatic hours on the central Mediterranean: In the night from Thursday to Friday, the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 was able to rescue a total of 109 people from distress at sea, including numerous children. During the first rescue mission, 32 people could be saved. However, the rescue was overshadowed by two deaths that occurred before the SEA-EYE 4 arrived. One of the deceased had made the life-threatening crossing with her baby. Immediately afterwards, the rescue ship set off for a second distress case.

During the night, another 77 people were rescued, including a pregnant woman. The SEA-EYE 4 is now on its way to Pesaro with a total of 109 survivors on board, the port assigned by Italy is about five days away. Italian authorities did not respond to a request for a closer port by Friday noon.

Six days the people of the first distress case were on the way on an unseaworthy metal boat. The distress was discovered and reported by the civil search and rescue aircraft Seabird of Sea-Watch e.V. late Thursday afternoon. As the only rescue ship that was underway in the area of operation at that time, the SEA-EYE 4 immediately set off. The journey took a total of 6 hours. When the rescuers reached the scene, two of the 34 people in the boat had already died. The Sea-Eye crew could only recover their bodies.

Many of the survivors had to be treated in the shipboard hospital. The medical team is still at its limit and in the process of treating several injured people. One person was in such bad condition that he was evacuated by the Maltese authorities by rescue helicopter on Friday morning.

“In the past six years, in more than two dozen missions, we always arrived in time to prevent the loss of life. But this time we arrived too late for two people. They were at the mercy of Europe’s brutal border regime for six days. That is unforgivable. A mother lost her life even before we could reach the boat. A baby became a half-orphan. A man lost his wife. We are deeply saddened. Our thoughts are with the grieving families of the deceased. We are now bringing the survivors to safety,” said Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye e.V.

“The news that our help for two people came too late makes us deeply sad and at the same time very angry. It is inhumane and shameful that the EU member states have stood idly by and watched the deaths in the Mediterranean Sea for years. Our thoughts are with the relatives of those who died, with those who were rescued, and we wish the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 that they will be able to stabilize the survivors and bring them to a port of safety soon,” explains Dr. Harald Kischlat, Chairman of German Doctors e.V. The organization regularly provides volunteer ship’s doctors for the missions of the SEA-EYE 4, including this mission.