New sailing ship for search and rescue in the Mediterranean
Berlin, 16 September 2025. With the sailing ship Humanity 2, the search and rescue organisation SOS Humanity, which has been active for ten years, is bringing its second rescue ship to the Central Mediterranean. The approximately 24-metre-long sailing ship is currently being purchased by SOS Humanity and will then be converted. From mid-2026, the Humanity 2 will fill a life-threatening gap off the Tunisian coast as a rescue and monitoring vessel.
‘The migration routes in the Mediterranean are becoming increasingly dangerous because the EU is paying third countries to intercept refugees. Instead of saving lives, Europe is sealing itself off at any cost, making the Mediterranean even more deadly,’ says Till Rummenhohl, managing director of SOS Humanity. ‘In the sea area off Tunisia a life-threatening rescue gap has developed, characterised by systematic human rights violations by the Tunisian Coast Guard. Boats disappear without a trace because Tunisia prohibits aerial reconnaissance and the Tunisian Rescue Coordination Centre does not coordinate rescues properly. People are fleeing in highly dangerous metal boats that sink quickly. This dramatic reality compels us to act. With the sailing ship Humanity 2, we will save lives and document human rights violations off the Tunisian coast, where Europe is failing. Our ship complements Humanity 1 perfectly, which is operating off Libya. Thus, we will be able to rescue more people in distress at sea and increase the pressure on those responsible.’
The sailing ship is currently still moored in a port on the French coast but will be transferred to Sicily in November and is scheduled to undergo conversion at the shipyard from December onwards. SOS Humanity is now calling for donations to finance the project.
‘Especially now that the new German federal government has cut all state funding, we need the support of civil society more than ever,’ emphasises Till Rummenhohl. ‘We firmly believe that the majority of people in Europe do not want to simply let those seeking protection in distress in the Mediterranean drown. Civil society has made it possible for us to rescue over 39,000 people in ten years and will continue to support our life-saving work. This solidarity and humanity in action should serve as an example to politicians. Since 2015, the EU and its Member States have failed to set up a European search and rescue programme to end the deaths in the Mediterranean. Instead, they are complicit in human rights violations and deliberately obstruct the work of search and rescue organisations. But we will not be intimidated; we will continue with a second ship!’
Background sea area off the Tunisian coast
Escalation of racist attacks in 2023 triggers wave of refugees
In 2023, more people than ever fled Tunisia across the Mediterranean to Italy. One of the triggers was an inflammatory speech by Tunisian President Kais Saied, in which he blamed Black people from sub-Saharan Africa for the economic crisis in the country. This led to the brutal persecution of Black people and an escalation of human rights violations. Numerous reports confirm that since then, Black people have been hunted, beaten and robbed, and refugees have been abandoned in the desert by official security personnel, where many die of thirst.
Deadly Tunisian sea area
The Tunisian corridor is an increasingly dangerous migration route. Many people flee in unseaworthy, severely overcrowded metal boats that are crudely welded together. These boats are notorious for breaking apart in seconds or filling with water and sinking. Due to a wide-ranging no-fly zone and the ban on satellite phones, emergencies often go unnoticed. In addition to the numerous reported deaths, human rights organizations assume that there are many unreported cases of shipwrecks – the boats and those fleeing disappear without a trace and unnoticed in the sea. This makes the Tunisian corridor one of the most dangerous and least documented migration routes to Europe.
Externalisation of border management, sealing Europe off at any cost
Since the EU-Tunisia agreement and the establishment of a Tunisian search and rescue zone and rescue coordination center in June 2024, supported by Europe, there has also been an increase in violent and sometimes fatal returns of refugees by the Tunisian Coast Guard. These measures, which are intended to prevent people on the move from reaching Europe, reduced the number of refugees arriving in Italy from Tunisia in 2025 to 3,210 in the first eight months of the year. Approved by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Tunisian Rescue Coordination Centre and Coast Guard have since been officially responsible for search and rescue operations in this sea area. On behalf of the EU, refugees are intercepted and returned to Tunisia with brutal force. Because Tunisia is not a safe place for people rescued from distress at sea, these pull-backs violate international maritime law. Despite this unlawfulness, the German government supports the Tunisian Coast Guard and Rescue Coordination Centre financially and with personnel.
Continued violence in Tunisia in 2025
Brutal mass evictions from refugee camps, violent deportations to the hostile borders in the Tunisian desert, imprisonment of NGO workers and dissidents, and racist violence by state actors and civilians characterize the situation in Tunisia. Despite international criticism of these human rights violations, the Tunisian government continues its repressive measures on land and violent pull-backs at sea, supported by the EU and the German federal government.
SOS Humanity’s demands regarding Tunisia
SOS Humanity calls on the German government to end its cooperation with Tunisia in the field of search and rescue at sea.
The EU and its Member States must not actively support the practice of the Tunisian Coast Guard forcibly returning people rescued from distress at sea back to Tunisia, thereby participating in illegal pull-backs.
The EU and its Member States must revoke their official recognition of the Tunisian search and rescue zone because Tunisia is not a safe place for people rescued from distress at sea and the Tunisian Rescue Coordination Centre does not coordinate distress cases in accordance with the rules.
