On Wednesday (June 18), migrant rescue NGOs that operate in the Mediterranean voiced harsh criticism of European governments while taking stock of their decade-long work in the Central Mediterranean.

At a press conference in Berlin, the private organizations, which included Sea-Watch, Sea-Eye, SOS Humanity, United4Rescue and Alarm Phone, said that ships of civilian sea rescuers have been involved in the rescue of more than 175,000 people in the Central Mediterranean since 2015.

"We are taking on the role that would actually be the task of government agencies," said Lisa Groß from the distress hotline Alarm Phone. However, the maritime rescue coordination centers, particularly those of Italy and Malta, merely pass on information to the Libyan coast guard "so that they can take the people in Libya to torture camps," Groß said.

The EU states of Italy and Malta, in particular, support such illegal returns of migrants to Libya and Tunisia, Groß claimed.

According to SOS Humanity, civilian sea rescue has been increasingly confronted with official obstructions, criminal prosecution and the confiscation of ships from 2017 at the latest.

Since coming to power in 2023, the Italian government under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has escalated these tactics by detaining 28 civilian rescue ships and assigning them to distant ports to disembark rescued people, according to SOS Humanity spokesperson Mirka Schäfer. The detentions amounted to 680 days of not being able to pursue rescue missions, Schäfer claimed.

The helpers, moreover, decried that their work is systematically obstructed by the authorities and that the law is systematically broken in order to "seal off Europe".  They accused EU states of inaction and demanded an end to what they called "political blockades" of private rescue missions.

David Yambio, co-founder of Refugees in Libya, voiced similar concerns. "The fact that ten years have passed -- marked by States’ neglect, mechanised violence, and abuse of power without end in sight -- is a stark reminder that Europe‘s migratory policy has failed humanity. It has failed at sea, on land, in law, and on moral grounds. We have learned that Europe cannot prosecute the dead, so it prosecutes those who try to keep them alive. But we, the common citizens, have a duty to stand up -- now more than ever," he stated at the press conference.

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Call for EU-wide rescue program

Echoing the NGOs' criticism, German Green politicians called for a "humane migration policy" instead of populist isolationism.

The members of Parliament also supported their call for a new EU rescue mission, which the migrant rescue NGOs demanded once again on Wednesday (June 18) at said press conference.

The organizations called on the EU and its member states to re-establish an EU search and rescue program for the Mediterranean along the escape routes, which has not existed since the end of operation Mare Nostrum in 2014.

To this end, they reiterated proposals for a new operation, 'Mare Solidale' (sea of solidarity). Based on existing EU civil protection and humanitarian aid structures, this operation would organize the search for endangered refugees and their initial reception in EU countries in accordance with the rules of the law of the sea.

"As long as there is no European-coordinated sea rescue program, thousands of people will continue to die trying to reach the EU -- or remain trapped in a horrific cycle of violence in Libya," said Sea-Watch spokesperson Giulia Messmer.

At the beginning of May, SOS Humanity -- formerly SOS Méditerranée -- had already drawn up its own assessment, stating that the situation had deteriorated significantly over the years.

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Six deaths per day

At present, 21 organizations are reportedly involved in rescue missions in the Central Mediterranean, ten of them from Germany. This 'civil fleet', as it's often called, currently comprises 15 rescue vessels, seven sailboats and four reconnaissance planes.

Not all vessels and planes are however active at the same time, which means their number on any given day varies significantly. Funding for the missions mainly comes from private donations.

Almost 22,000 migrants have died or gone missing since 2015 in the Central Mediterranean, according to the Missing Migrants Project. That's close to six deaths per day on average. The real number is almost certainly higher.

With 4,574 dead and missing migrants, 2016 was the deadliest year in the past decade, followed by 2023 (2,526). Attempts to cross the Mediterranean in often unseaworthy boats repeatedly lead to fatal disasters like the Cutro shipwreck off the southern Italian Calabria coast in 2023, in which at least 94 migrants lost their lives.

The rescue of migrants trying to reach Europe from the Middle East or Africa via the Mediterranean is one of the most contentious issues in European politics for decades.

The EU has signed several controversial agreements with several North African countries, like Tunisia, in a bid to deter migrants.

Sea-Eye blocked in Sicily

Meanwhile, the Sea-Eye 5, a German-flagged NGO rescue vessel, was barred from leaving the Sicilian port of Pozzallo after docking there with 65 migrants on board on Monday (June 16).

According to non-profit organization Sea-Eye, which operates the vessel, the Sea-Eye 5 was detained on the Italian island and that Italian authorities accused it of "disregarding instructions and not applying for the port of disembarkation in good time," among other things.

News agencies dpa and epd meanwhile reported that authorities justified the detention with alleged violations of instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Rome.

Sea-Eye called the accusations "unfounded" and said it will take legal action.

"Our crew acted at all times in the best interests of the rescued people and in accordance with international maritime law," it wrote on Instagram. Sea-Eye accused Italian authorities of using "fabricated allegations" to force out civilian rescue ships.

On Saturday, the Sea-Eye 5 crew rescued 65 migrants from an overcrowded rubber dinghy around 90 kilometers off the Libyan coast and brought them to Sicily.

A pregnant woman and three people with severe injuries were among the rescued, according to the aid organization, which is based in the southern German city of Regensburg.

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with dpa, KNA, epd, AFP