Open Arms SAR Coordinator DAVID LLADO tells The Civil Fleet about the moment 118 refugees fell into sea when their boat split in half and how his team rescued them RIGHT at the moment when the Open Arms‘ rescuers began transferring the first person onto a rigid-hull inflatable boat (Rhib), the back of the refugees’Continue reading “‘There were too many people on the rubber boat, and we were too few’”
Tag Archives: Frontex
First NGO rescue mission in over a month saves the lives of close to 200 people
Open Arms finds survivors and five dead in two dinghies less than 24 hours apart in the central Mediterranean AROUND 199 refugees have been saved in the central Mediterranean by NGO rescuers for the first time since European states blockaded seven civilian rescue ships over a month ago. The Open Arms rescue ship left Barcelona,Continue reading “First NGO rescue mission in over a month saves the lives of close to 200 people”
125 refugees on the Alan Kurdi continue four-day wait for land
Meanwhile, the fates of 4 people intercepted by the EU-supported Libyan Coastguard remain unknown THE Italian coastguard evacuated eight people this morning from an NGO refugee rescue ship whose calls for help had been ignored for four days. The Alan Kurdi picked up 133 people, including 62 minors, from three boats in the central MediterraneanContinue reading “125 refugees on the Alan Kurdi continue four-day wait for land”
‘The EU doesn’t have to shoot refugees; the sea will do the dirty work for it’
NEESKE BECKMANN tells The Civil Fleet what she and the Moonbird reconnaissance plane witnessed when Europe ignored the Louise Michel’s plea for help ON SATURDAY’S mission with our aircraft Moonbird, we were forced to witness once again everything that is wrong with the EU’s border policies. First we spotted the EU-funded, so-called Libyan Coastguard inContinue reading “‘The EU doesn’t have to shoot refugees; the sea will do the dirty work for it’”
Europe’s continued blockade of NGO rescue ships condemned as 45 people die in shipwreck off Libya
“THE mountains of corpses in front of Europe’s walls are growing,” warned NGO rescuers today following the deaths of 45 people in a shipwreck off the Libyan Coast. The United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced the deaths in a joint statement on Wednesday night. “Some 37 survivors –Continue reading “Europe’s continued blockade of NGO rescue ships condemned as 45 people die in shipwreck off Libya”
‘The Libyan Coastguard’s interceptions of refugees couldn’t happen without Europe’s planes’
Sea Watch’s head of airborne operations TAMINO BOHM tells The Civil Fleet about Frontex’s role in forcing refugees back to hell. THE Moonbird took off from the airport on the Italian island of Lampedusa on June 25 looking for stranded refugees in the central Mediterranean. “We were on two missions that day because it wasContinue reading “‘The Libyan Coastguard’s interceptions of refugees couldn’t happen without Europe’s planes’”
NGO rescuers demand new EU Council presidency compels member states to abide by refugee laws
Sea Watch and Mare Liberum’s demands include defunding Frontex, reforming the Dublin Regulation, ending support for the Libyan Coastguard, extending Free Movement and more THE GERMAN government must use the next six months as president of the Council of the European Union to adopt a human rights-based approach to migration, civil refugee rescue organisations demandedContinue reading “NGO rescuers demand new EU Council presidency compels member states to abide by refugee laws”
Sending refugees back to hell with EU support
Piecing together the story from several documents provided by the EU following months of FOI requests, The Civil Fleet exposes how the bloc’s supposed training of the Libyan coastguard has only made things worse THE International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has estimated that 347 people have died trying to reach Europe while crossing the MediterraneanContinue reading “Sending refugees back to hell with EU support”
Frontex is ‘attempting to sue its critics into silence’
FRONTEX, the European Border and Coastguard Agency, is “attempting to sue its critics into silence,” human rights activists warned today. Transparency campaigners Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott of the German organisation FragDenStaat (Ask The Country) filed a freedom of information request to Frontex last year asking the agency what types of boats it has inContinue reading “Frontex is ‘attempting to sue its critics into silence’”
EU to continue supporting the Libyan Coastguard despite its fears of human rights abuses
THE EU intends to continue supporting and training the Libyan Coastguard and its refugee interceptions despite the bloc’s concerns that the war-torn country’s government may be violating the human rights of migrants and profiting from their detention, this site can reveal. In response to a freedom of information request regarding the bloc’s funding, training andContinue reading “EU to continue supporting the Libyan Coastguard despite its fears of human rights abuses”
The Civil Fleet 