Sea-Watch 3 says invited to Syracuse but hindered by Rome

Seven days after the rescue of 47 people shipwrecked off the Libyan coast, the last remaining rescue ship in the central Mediterranean Sea, Sea Watch 3, reported yesterday that it is now blocked off the coast of Sicily despite various cities offering a port of safety.

On Thursday, Sea Watch 3 said, the mayor of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, Francesco Italia, had declared the city’s port open, in collaboration with the local civil society, and had asked the authorities responsible to allow the ship to enter.

“However, the Italian government, whose Minister of the Interior is already under investigation for kidnapping, abuse of office and breaking the SAR Convention in a similar case, is currently prohibiting the people from leaving the ship,” Sea Watch said yesterday.

On Thursday, without a safe port for the exhausted people on board and expecting a Mediterranean storm with waves more than seven metres high, Sea Watch sought shelter to the east of the Sicilian coast that was not affected by the worst part of the storm.

After receiving an invitation from the Mayor of Syracuse to all 47 people, the Captain of the ship asked for permission to enter the city’s port. However, Sea Watch said, once in proximity to the port, Sea Watch was assigned a berth instead of a safe port that would have allowed the landing of the shipwrecked people on board. The refusal to enter the port was notified without justification

and the ship therefore remains stuck at anchor 1.4 miles from the port of Syracuse without being able to provide assistance on land to the vulnerable people fleeing Libya who had suffered days on the high seas.

After many hours had passed without receiving any authorisation to land, Sea Watch proceeded with a report to the prosecutor in Catania. The prosecutor, as required by law, asked for the immediate disembarkation of the 13 minors on board, emphasising that – in their prolonged discomfort, their rights were being ignored.

On the Sea Watch, however, in addition to the minors there are 34 other people who have been subjected to long periods of arbitrary detention in Libyan prisons where they have suffered daily torture, abuse and physical and psychological violence.

After seven days on the ship, to go ahead with the landing of only a part of the shipwrecked people would be traumatic for those who have been forced to remain on board.

“My father died of a heart attack when I was a child”, says A..., who is 26 and from Guinea. “I left Guinea two years ago to help my family. In Libya, militias forced me to work 12 hours a day without interruption. They threatened me by pointing weapons at me while I was working and at the end of the day they often didn’t give me any food. They killed one of my friends in front of me one morning because he couldn’t get up to go to work.

“It was in Libya that I met Yannik, who is with me on board. He is my ‘grand frère’”. They have been taking care of each other since they were in Libya, A. explains.

Sea Watch is asking for an end to what is describes as “this odyssey that the 47 people on board are suffering: people whose physical and psychological state is at stake and who need immediate help. Therefore we strongly request the immediate disembarkation of all these shipwrecked people.

“This could have been a bright day for European solidarity after a very dark week: at least 170 people have gone missing – and unverified reports from Libya speak of many more. Another 250 have been forcibly returned by the EU-funded, so-called Libyan Coast-Guard and two merchant ships, violating the Geneva Refugee Convention,” said Sea Watch chairman Johannes Bayer, about the invitation to Syracuse.

“We are grateful to the city of Syracuse and its people for this great sign of solidarity and similarly our thanks go to Palermo, Naples, Barcelona, Berlin and all the other cities who have joined the ranks of open ports and solidarity cities.

This is the Europe we want to live in, a Europe of Solidarity,” Bayer said. “Yet, in Europe, apparently, human rights only apply to people under 18 years of age these days”, he added, referring to the suggestion of a partial disembarkation of the 13 unaccompanied minors.