Sea-Watch launches European rescue mission ‘after almost four months of blockade’

Together with the Spanish organization Open Arms and Italian partner project Mediterranea, the Sea-Watch 3 says it has returned to the search-and-rescue zone off Libya. The ship had previously been detained in Malta for almost four months.

The fleet of three ships from three countries, which is also supported by the Moonbird reconnaissance aircraft, sees itself as a civil society response to the European Union’s migration policy, and will carry out a joint search-and-rescue operation in the central Mediterranean and document human rights violations, Sea-Watch has said in a statement.

“The EU states are haggling over the distribution of single rescued persons, while the death rate in the central Mediterranean rose to a record high in September. We are setting a good example and giving a European response to the state-imposed state of emergency in the Mediterranean, which is committed to the ideals of solidarity and human rights,” says Johannes Bayer, head of operations on the Sea-Watch 3.

While arrivals have dropped significantly in recent months, a report by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies has indicated that one in five people drowned in September while attempting to reach Europe across the central Mediterranean – a figure linked to the impediment of civilian rescue workers and the transfer of European responsibility to the Libyan coast guard.

“In view of the declining number of arrivals, the issue is not whether Europe can cope with the numbers, but whether Europe can still muster enough humanity to simply prevent people from drowning,” says Bayer.

In a joint appeal, the organisations condemned the European Union’s funding of third countries – including what they say are dictatorships and militias – to prevent refugees and migrants from entering Europe, as well as the associated violations of fundamental human rights and those of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. They also strongly reject what they describe as a growing ‘criminalisation’ campaign against migrants and refugees, which, they claim, has developed into a governmental and judicial strategy that makes the defence of humanity and solidarity a criminal offence.

Bayer says: “We do not want to live in a Europe that has turned its maritime border into a mass grave as a deterrent and has its Libyan bouncers do the dirty work. We see ourselves as part of an alliance for a humane Europe at sea, on land and in the air, a Europe of safe havens and cities and communities based on solidarity. As long as the EU lets people drown in the Mediterranean, we will continue to go to sea.”