By Olesya Astakhova
(Reuters) – After three days trapped in a cellar by shelling, Svetlana and Sergei Divenko left their home in eastern Ukraine and fled to Russia with their two children and a single bag.
The two-day, 250-km (150-mile) car journey from the city of Slaviansk to the quiet provincial city of Belgorod in June was the most hazardous of their life, taking them across territory hit by fighting and through six checkpoints.
WatchTheMed-Aufruf in diversen Sprachen
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/
For Boatpeople in Distress at Sea and in Cases of Pushback
The Watch The Med Alarm Phone is a ‘hotline’ for people in distress at sea. Our hotline will run 24/7 and will immediately raise alarm when refugees and migrants get into situations of distress at sea and are not promptly rescued. It will be managed by human rights activists from both sides of the Mediterranean and offer a multilingual team that will first advise all persons in distress to alert the officially responsible rescue teams. The Watch The Med Alarm Phone does not possess rescue-teams and we cannot offer direct protection. When a distress call is received, we will call the coast guards ourselves, and follow up on their response, making known to them that we are informed and ‘watching’ them. If they fail to respond, we will gather all imaginable political and public pressure to force them to do so.
