The breeze is getting rougher, the winds are shifting to the right. We are noticing this in Germany – especially now, shortly before the federal election – but also across Europe, when search and rescue becomes more difficult, the right to asylum is undermined and populism becomes the political norm. This makes it all the more important that we consistently campaign for political change in order to rescue lives at sea, uphold human rights and protect the rule of law. Because human dignity and international law must be respected always and everywhere. We demand change, at sea and on land!

Maritime law states that people in distress at sea must be rescued. And a rescue is only complete when the people disembark at a nearby, port of safety. However, the Italian government systematically assigns distant ports to the rescue ships. This practice is carried out in violation of maritime law.

We demand compliance with international law and respect for the right to immediate disembarkation at a place of safety!

Again and again, survivors on board tell us that they would rather die at sea than return to Libya or Tunisia, where they face violence and torture, as well as the danger of being abandoned in the desert. Nevertheless, illegal returns are the order of the day. Since 2024, 80,000 people have been intercepted in the Mediterranean and taken back to Libya against their will. The so-called Libyan Coast Guard  is financed and trained by the EU.

We demand that the EU ends these cooperations and stops being complicit in human rights violations!

Since 2014, the EU and its member states have suspended almost all state-led search and rescue programmes in the Central Mediterranean. Since then, 30.000 people have died on the world’s deadliest escape route. The coordination of search and rescue is an obligation of the states. Since they evade their responsibility, civilian search and rescue organizations like SOS Humanity carry out this essential work.

We call for a European coordinated search and rescue programme to save lives!

Since our founding as an organisation in 2015, SOS Humanity has rescued over 38,000 people from distress at sea. However, our life-saving work is increasingly being hindered by political decisions and legal harassment. Politically motivated hurdles are deliberately hampering our operations, for instance by illegitimately detaining our rescue ship, Humanity 1.

We demand an immediate end to the obstruction of civil search and rescue!