More than 400 rescued people of the SEA-EYE 4 go ashore in Pozzallo

The crew had already asked for a port of safety on Monday. It was not until two days later on Wednesday evening that the Italian authorities responded and assigned the SEA-EYE 4 to Pozzallo, Sicily. At that time, the SEA-EYE 4 was several nautical miles away on the other side of the Mediterranean island just outside the port of Palermo. Palermo’s mayor, Leoluca Orlando, had previously extended an invitation to the rescued people and crew to go ashore in his port.

“Due to the choice of the port of disembarkation Pozzallo, a great number of people had to spend two more nights sleeping on the steel floors of the SEA-EYE 4. EU countries are increasingly brutal in their treatment of people in need of protection and are harassing those who want to help them. It is simply appalling that Spanish soldiers are beating refugees back into the water and Italian parliamentarians are celebrating this in the context of our situation to propose the same treatment of our rescued people! Instead of fighting causes of flight, state actors are themselves attacking people who are fleeing. If the EU continues to tilt in this direction, then we can write off the 1951 Refugee Convention for good,” says Gorden Isler, Chairman of the board of Sea-Eye e. V.

“The last seven days of our rescue mission have once more very clearly demonstrated the failure of the EU states. People regularly drown as they flee and thousands are forcibly returned to the civil war hell of Libya. No one in the governments of Europe seems to even think about respecting human rights anymore,” Isler said at the end of the rescue mission.

“We are happy that the medical care on board of the Sea-Eye 4 was successful and even an emergency evacuation was possible in time. We would like to thank our mission doctor Stefan Mees as well as the entire crew of the Sea-Eye 4 and our partners from United4Rescue for the successful rescue of more than 400 people. Now that the refugees have been allowed to go ashore, we appeal to the Italian authorities to allow them access to further medical and psychological care. This is indispensable, because many of the men, women and children are traumatized and in poor health,” says Dr. Christine Winkelmann, Executive Director German Doctors e. V.

The SEA-EYE 4 had rescued more than 400 people from boats unfit for the high seas in six rescue missions from May 14 to May 17, 2021. UNHCR reported that the so-called Libyan Coast Guard meanwhile prevented a total of 650 people from leaving the civil war country of Libya. Earlier media reports indicate that EU states are supporting these forced repatriations through their own task forces such as Frontex. The crew of the SEA-EYE 4 collected evidence on this themselves. On May 14, the crew reached an abandoned boat without any people, but during the operation they sighted a Frontex aircraft. And on May 17, the crew only became aware of a boat because a Frontex aircraft was circling not far from SEA-EYE 4, however, without directly informing Sea-Eye about the emergency at sea.