Tragic shipwreck off the Italian coast: Flash quote from Marco Bertotto, Head of Operations MSF Italy

June 19, 2024

Faced with yet another heartbreaking count, 21 bodies and over 60 missing in just 10 days in the Mediterranean Sea, the institutional silence is shameful. It is a silence that disregards the pain of survivors, a dehumanizing void that is...

MSF rescue ship detained in Italy following threats by Libyan Coast Guard

March 26, 2024

Geo Barents, the search and rescue ship operated by international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has been issued a detention order for 20 days by the Italian authorities for allegedly failing to comply with instructions issued by...

41 people died in shipwreck off Lampedusa

August 10, 2023

By Juan Matías Gil, MSF Search and Rescue Representative“These kinds of tragedies are happening daily in the Mediterranean and at the European borders, right in front of everyone’s eyes. More and more people have been taking the sea to find refuge over...

MSF: “We call upon the European Commission and EU States to urgently invest in life-saving rescue capacities”

July 14, 2023

Today, 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....

Non-Governmental Organisations urge European Commission to put under scrutiny Italian law restricting search and rescue activities at sea

July 13, 2023

Brussels, 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...

MSF: EU policies are killing people as they search for safety

July 8, 2023

30 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...

Libya: “I’m terrified that something bad will happen to my son”

November 2, 2022

Libyans desperate to flee violence risk the dangerous crossing to Europe Today, November 2, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on migration between the Italian and Libyan governments will automatically renew for three years. The European Union (EU)-sponsored agreement has seen...

Left to drown in the Southern European Border: One year of Geo Barents at sea

July 5, 2022

One 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...

Mediterranean migration: The father who faced the sea so his sons might go to school

November 26, 2021

On 16 November, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' search and rescue ship, the Geo Barents, responded to a distress call of a small wooden boat floating in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Our teams rescued 99 people; tragically, 10 people died, having been asphyxiated...

Search and rescue: “They describe Libya as hell”

October 31, 2021

“They are playing now, they smile and befriend each other, they seem like any other young people,” says Julie Melichar, humanitarian affairs officer on board MSF’s search and rescue vessel Geo Barents. “But they are no longer just children or teenagers –...

Mediterranean migration: Stories of survival at sea

October 2, 2021

MSF rescued 60 people, including six minors and 24 women, during two operations on board the Geo Barents ship on Monday 20 September. Once safely on board, some of the survivors decided to share the stories of their horrific journeys across the...

MSF requests the revocation of the Geo Barents’ detention

July 24, 2021

On 23 July MSF officially requested the release of its ship the Geo Barents from three weeks of detention after having responded to all requests made by the Italian Maritime Authority, which on 2 July identified 22 deficiencies leading to...