Syllabus/content/annex/seawatch.md

title	mentioned_in
Sea-Watch	/topic/searescue.md

Sea rescue

Sea-Watch is a civilian search and rescue initiative helping migrants survive arguably the deadliest migration route in the world — the short stretch of the Mediterranean Sea leading from Northern Africa to South Europe. Since 2014 over 600,000 migrants have made the passage, and it is estimated that over 15,000 have perished in shipwrecks.

The Sea-Watch grew out of an initiative of volunteers who could no longer stand by watching as people were drowning. In late 2014 they banded together to acquire a 20m sea cutter and in May of 2015 the Sea-Watch I was in Lampedusa to start its first mission — helping in the Euorpean Union-coordinated sea rescue operations by conducting search for boats in distress and navigating larger ships to take people on board and bring them to a safety in European ports.

{{< figure src="/images/seawatch.jpeg" width="100%" title="Figure 1. Sea-Watch 4. Photo: Crhis Grodotzki/Sea-Watch" >}}

Externalisation of EU borders

Earlier in the decade, the EU was committed to helping migrants to making it to safety. Only in 2014, the Italian-led Mare Nostrum operation brought at least 150,000 migrants to Europe. However, with the refugee crisis of 2016, the EU made an about-turn, rescinding its obligations under the Geneva Convention, Charter of Fundamental Rights of European Union and other human rights norms to strike a deal with Turkey to hold back refugees.

In early 2017 this lead to an increase in crossings in the Central Mediterranean. Set on keeping the refugees outside its borders at any cost, the EU tasked the paramilitary Libyan Coast Guard to conduct search and rescue operations and bring the migrants back to Libya, where they face inhumane conditions, detention and persecution. While the externalisation of EU borders to Libya has significantly reduced the number of crossings, the dangerous actions of the Libyan Coast Guard amounting to violent pushback have, in equal measure, increased the rate of deaths.

Criminalisation of civilian search and rescue

In May 2016 the Sea-Watch II was for the first time instructed to take the rescuees on board. With the rollback of the EU's commitment, the civilian search and rescue organisations such as SOS Mediterranée, Doctors without Borders, Jugend Rettet and Sea-Watch were the only one left to actively save people at sea. The about-turn also lead to the denial of entry to Italian and Maltese ports, where civilian sea and rescue ships could bring refugees to safety, culminating in the seizing of Jugend Rettet's Iuventa under the captain Pia Klemp in August 2017 and the arrest of captain Carola Rackete in July 2019.

Present operations

The civilian sea and rescue organisations are estimated to have saved 100,000 lives since 2014. Sea-Watch and Doctors Without Borders are the only NGOs still resisting EU's clamp-down. Currently, Sea-Watch operates a 55m Sea-Watch 3 and jointly with Doctors without Borders a 60m Sea-Watch 4, as well as two reconnaissance planes Moonbird and Seabird. It's sister organisation operats a 31m speed boat Louise Michel.

Sea-Watch considers its mission only a patch applied against a symptom, whereas the real solution is political — securing a safe passage for all migrants.

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{{< /raw >}} {{< figure src="/images/169.png" width="100%" title="Figure 2: Chris Grodotzki: Two interviews with Giorgia Linardi, Sea-watch - Italian Representative & Legal Advisor. The first interview was filmed together with Lou Huber Eustachi on August 15, 2016, on Malta. The second interview on October 11, 2019, on Lampedusa. 2019, 12'45\". (Courtesy of Chris Grodotzki)" >}} {{< raw >}}

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