SEA-EYE 4 off to second rescue mission

Rescue Zone SEA-EYE 4

Mission is dedicated to deceased Sea-Eye board member Prof. Dr. med. Tilman Mischkowsky

On Friday evening, Aug. 27, 2021, the alliance ship SEA-EYE 4 departed for its second rescue mission to the central Mediterranean Sea. The rescue ship is urgently needed, as there have been numerous reports of sea emergencies in recent days. The Italian authorities had previously detained the ship for 10 weeks in the port of Palermo on flimsy grounds and demanded technical adjustments. With the support of the competent German authority, Ship Safety Department of BG Verkehr, the sea rescuers managed to adapt the SEA-EYE 4 in such a way that the Italian coast guard lifted the detention.

The second rescue mission of the SEA-EYE 4 will be supported by a doctor from German Doctors again.

Desperate people who take on the life-threatening flight across the Mediterranean Sea due to poverty, war and persecution must not be left to their fate and drown in front of the European external borders! As a German Doctors mission doctor and part of the medical team on board of the SEA-EYE 4, I would like to contribute a small part to saving people on the run and hope for a successful mission,” says Dr. Daniela Klein, German Doctors mission doctor and ship’s doctor on board the SEA-EYE 4.

Daniela von German Doctors

Since 2014, more than 20,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea during their flight. 1241 people died in the Mediterranean Sea in 2021 alone due to a lack of safe passages (as of 26.08.2021).

Obituary on the passing of Prof. Dr. med. Tilman Mischkowsky by Jan Ribbeck, vice chairman of Sea-Eye e. V. and longtime companion

Prof. Dr. Tilman Mischkowsky passed away on April 17, 2021. He was a man of the first hours at Sea-Eye e. V. He sawed plywood boards on the first rescue ship of Sea-Eye e. V. and built a small infirmary. When a lack of tools for medical aid occured, like it happened in Nepal for example, he made hospital beds and surgical equipment from scrap metal himself. He knocked rust off the ship’s hull of the SEA-EYE with a hammer so that the old fishing boat could later save people from drowning.

However, Tilman Mischkowsky was not only able to get things done at the grassroots level, but also to think and steer on a large scale. He headed a trauma surgery department for decades and made his mark on the trauma surgery community with his expertise and presence. As chairman at Sea-Eye e. V., he has used his organizational skills, networking ability, and authority to help shape the path to our largest rescue ship to date and the professional work at Sea-Eye e. V.

He would have had great joy and satisfaction in accompanying the renewed departure of the SEA-EYE 4 today. With this second rescue mission he would fight together with the crew and all Sea-Eye activists against the complacent European policy of exclusion of refugees and defend the human right to life. Sea-Eye dedicates the second rescue mission of the SEA-EYE 4, which started on August 27, 2021 from Sicily, to Tilman Mischkowsky.