EU-sponsored shameful abuses in the Central Mediterranean must end
March 20, 2024Rome, 19 March 2024 - Over the weekend of March 16-17, the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders’s (MSF) team on board the rescue vessel Geo Barents witnessed two violent incidents involving the European Union (EU) funded Libyan Coast Guard that...
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“No one came to our rescue”: The new normal of EU migration policies in the Central Mediterranean
November 22, 2023Rome, 22 November 2023 – With almost 2,200 children, women, and men reported missing or dead in the Central Mediterranean this year, 2023 has already earned the unenviable record of being the deadliest year on this migration route since 2017....
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MSF: “We call upon the European Commission and EU States to urgently invest in life-saving rescue capacities”
July 14, 2023Today, the European Parliament, representing the citizens of the EU, adopted a Resolution on the need for the European Union to step up its efforts in saving lives at sea and to invest in proactive state-led search and rescue activities....
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Non-Governmental Organisations urge European Commission to put under scrutiny Italian law restricting search and rescue activities at sea
July 13, 2023Brussels, 13 July, 2023 – Five leading Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have submitted a complaint to the European Commission (EC) about Italian Law 15/2023 and the practice by Italian authorities of assigning ports distant from the area where the rescue took...
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MSF: EU policies are killing people as they search for safety
July 8, 202330 June, 2023 – Following the shipwreck of 14 June which left up to 500 people dead or missing off the coast of Greece, international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounces EU migration policies and calls for...
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New decree obstructs lifesaving rescue efforts at sea and will cause more deaths
January 5, 2023We, civil organisations engaged in search and rescue (SAR) activities in the central Mediterranean Sea, express our gravest concerns regarding the latest attempt by a European government to obstruct assistance to people in distress at sea.A new law decree, signed...
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The newborn Ali and his family are safe, but the future of the other 249 survivors remains uncertain
December 12, 2022Central Mediterranean, 9 December 2022 – At 11:31 on Wednesday 7th December, little *Ali entered the world on board the Geo Barents, a search and rescue vessel chartered by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). His mother, Fatima*, gave birth in the...
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SOS Mediterranee, MSF and Sea-Watch alert on the critical risk of more deaths in the central Mediterranean this summer in the absence of European state led search and rescue operations
August 3, 2022In this summer season, SOS Mediterranee, MSF and Sea-Watch urgently call for the provision of European state-led search and rescue maritime assets in the central Mediterranean to prevent more deaths. Within five days, Geo Barents, a search and rescue ship...
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Left to drown in the Southern European Border: One year of Geo Barents at sea
July 5, 2022One year of operations in the Central Mediterranean have passed by, this time with the Geo Barents - Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) vessel - rescuing 3,138 people and conducting 6,536 medical consultations before disembarking in a place of safety in...
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MSF is determined to return to sea to save lives after Geo Barents detained in Italy
July 5, 2021Hundreds of lives are being lost in the Central Mediterranean Sea while humanitarian NGO vessels are detained, warns Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), as the Geo Barents becomes the latest NGO ship to be held by Italian port authorities. MSF calls upon the Italian authorities...
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