‘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 in

Maltese coastguard abandons 25 refugees within its search and rescue area

Refugee rescuers Sea Watch accuse Malta’s coastguards of only being interested in ‘sending people back to Libya’ THE Maltese coastguard’s raison d’etre was called into question today after one of its vessels abandoned a refugee boat within its search-and-rescue (SAR) zone. The Moonbird, a monitoring aircraft belonging to German refugee rescue charity Sea Watch, informed

Italian coastguard condemned for seizing fourth NGO refugee rescue ship over ‘safety’ concerns

SOS Mediterranee asks where Italy’s concerns were when they ignored the Ocean Viking’s calls for help for 11 days earlier this month CIVIL refugee rescue organisations have condemned the Italian coastguard after its inspectors impounded another NGO rescue ship. European charity SOS Mediterranee’s ship, the Ocean Viking, was impounded following an 11-hour inspection in Sicily,

‘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 was

Italian coastguard abandoned refugees in a wooden boat near Lampedusa

The stranded were finally taken to land after 40 hours adrift in the Mediterranean AN ITALIAN coastguard vessel failed to rescue refugees who were just a nautical mile away from its position in the central Mediterranean on Monday afternoon. The refugee distress hotline organisation Alarm Phone was contacted on Sunday morning by a boat in

Baby born on a dinghy in the Mediterranean pulled back to war-torn Libya

NGO rescuers tried to reach the refugees’ before the EU-supported Libyan Coastguard intercepted them A BABY born on a dinghy in the central Mediterranean was intercepted and returned to a war zone last night by the EU-supported Libyan Coastguard. On Friday afternoon a boat carrying around 95 people contacted Alarm Phone, an activist network that

First refugees rescued off the Libyan coast in 8 weeks as the Sea Watch 3 saves the lives of over 90 people

EU using chartered planes to organise the Libyan Coastguard’s interceptions of refugee boats, NGOs’ report shows RESCUERS today carried out their first mission off the coast of Libya since Italy seized two charity ships eight weeks ago. Sea Watch 3, a vessel operated by German charity Sea Watch, reported at about noon that it had

Turkish naval ship aids pushback of refugees to Libya

Meanwhile NGOs remain the only ships in the Mediterranean to rescue people fleeing the war zone A TURKISH naval ship aided the return of refugees to war-torn Libya today after pulling around 30 people from a dinghy in the central Mediterranean Sea in the morning. Turkey’s National Defence Department tweeted a video today of one