Berlin, 16 December 2024. In its annual review 2024 presented today, SOS Humanity looks back on an escalation of politically motivated obstruction of search and rescue. At the same time, the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean has intensified. The operational space for search and rescue organisations has been shrinking and Europe has become less accessible to those seeking protection. Human rights violations at the EU’s external borders have increased and the Central Mediterranean remains one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. SOS Humanity has summarised the most important events for search and rescue in its annual review and listed them chronologically: from the detention of rescue ships to successful lawsuits in Italian courts and the progressive outsourcing of responsibility for the protection of refugees.   

The figures for 2024 speak for themselves: 13 arrests of civil rescue ships in Italy, resulting in 323 days of lost time for search and rescue operations; over 117,000 additional kilometres travelled because rescue ships were assigned to unnecessarily distant ports in northern Italy. Another result: more than 1,600 children, women and men have drowned in the Central Mediterranean alone, and almost 21,000 fleeing people have been intercepted at sea by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard and forced back into the cycle of exploitation and violence in Libya. At the same time, more than 12,000 people were rescued from distress at sea by the civil fleet – 1,822 of them by the crew of Humanity 1 alone.   

In 2024, the EU and Italy in particular continued their policy of externalising responsibility: under pressure from far-right and populist parties, agreements were implemented with Tunisia and Albania that outsource border and asylum management to third countries and are intended to keep refugees out of Europe. Human rights violations and breaches of international law were witnessed, documented and, in some cases, successfully brought to court by non-governmental organisations. A legal intervention has also been made to examine the constitutionality of the Italian ‘Piantedosi Law’.   

The political blockade of non-governmental search and rescue, which is mostly based on this ‘Piantedosi Law’, is becoming increasingly severe. A particularly alarming development is the recently passed ‘Flussi Law’, which allows for the seizure of rescue ships and flight bans for civilian reconnaissance aircraft by Italy.   

However, Till Rummenhohl, managing director of the sea rescue organisation SOS Humanity, which has been operating since 2015, also sees positive developments: “Although we have been facing a great deal of political opposition in 2024, we look ahead to the coming year with confidence: civil society continues to stand up for search and rescue, more humanity and Europe’s values. This commitment is impressive. The civil fleet of the various search and rescue organisations is growing and we are now working even more closely together. Despite the political pressure, SOS Humanity remains committed to saving people from drowning, regardless of their origin or reason for fleeing. Human rights also apply in the Mediterranean. We call on the EU and its member states to finally fulfil their duty to rescue people at sea with a coordinated European search and rescue programme in the Mediterranean Sea.’   

The annual review as a detailed chronology with links to online articles can be found here:

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