Human rights do not end at the Mediterranean! That is why we are taking to the streets on March 22 in Berlin. We want to commemorate the people who have been killed trying to reach Europe because there are no safe refugee routes and rescue capacities are lacking. Bring flowers and candles if you can. At the same time, we want to be loud – for safe flight routes and the immediate release of the Sea-Watch 5 and Sea-Eye 4.

Drei Rettungsschiffe festgesetzt

Within a few days at the beginning of March, three German civil rescue ships – the Sea-Watch 5, the Sea-Eye 4 and the Humanity 1 – were detained by the Italian authorities on flimsy grounds; the Sea-Eye 4 was also the first rescue ship to be detained for 60 days. The targeted blockade of civilian rescue ships marks an alarming escalation in the systematic obstruction of sea rescue. With the detentions of the Sea-Eye 4 and the Sea-Watch 5, two life-saving ships are being actively kept away from the Mediterranean for a total of 80 days.

The fact that a judge at the civil court in Crotone justified the preliminary lifting of the detention of the Humanity 1 for 20 days on Monday evening with the “apparent injustice of the measure issued” once again reveals the shocking illegitimacy of the detention. Detentions of civil rescue ships are politically motivated and aim to prevent rescue organizations from doing their life-saving work and to prevent people on the move from seeking a place of safety in Europe.

Since the three detentions, at least 100 people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean. People who might have been saved if the ships had not been blocked.