Press Release on the Sarost 5 Disembarkation Announcement

30. Juli 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Press Release on the Sarost 5 Disembarkation Announcement · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Italien, Malta, Tunesien

WatchTheMed Alarm Phone | 29.07.2018

Watch the Med Alarm Phone has been in regular contact with crew members as well as rescued people of the Sarost 5 since the first distress call that took place in the Maltese SAR zone on Friday 13.07.18. The 40 rescued people have been at sea for more than two weeks. The rescued people and the crew of the supply vessel Sarost 5 have been stationed off the port of Zarzis since Monday 16.07.18 and have endured unbearable living conditions on board. We are relieved that the Tunisian government will let the people disembark for ‘humanitarian reasons’. However, we remain extremely concerned about the following points:

The ordeal endured by the crew and passengers of the Sarost 5 is the direct result of EU migration policies, which externalize border controls and condone the closure of ports in Italy and Malta to NGO and private rescue vessels. The case of the Sarost 5 adds to other worrying developments in the Central Mediterranean, such as the increased collaboration between Italy and the Libyan Coast Guard and the failure to give authorizations to rescue vessels to disembark people, leaving them stranded at sea for days.

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Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 71, Juli/August 2018

29. Juli 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Kompass – AntiRa – Newsletter Nr. 71, Juli/August 2018 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Deutschland, Termine

[DT] [EN]

Gegen die Achse der Schande: Für Offene Häfen und Solidarische Städte +++ Seebrücken: Tausende auf den Strassen und Demonstrationen gehen weiter +++ Ab 23.7. quer durch Deutschland: Women in Exile on Summer-Tour +++ Ab 23.7. in vielen Städten: Film zur Iuventa/Kriminalisierung von Jugend Rettet +++ Am 24./25.8. in Hamburg: große Ballhaus Versammlung und bundesweites Koordinationstreffen von We`ll Come United +++ Ab 29.8. in Frankfurt: Yallah-Ausstellung und Veranstaltungen +++ Alarm Phone mit unzähligen Anrufen von Booten aus Marokko +++ (Ketten)Push Backs von Slowenien und Kroatien nach Bosnien +++ Kalender im September: von Schutzräumen für Solidarische Städte bis zur großen We`ll Come United Parade am 29.9. in Hamburg +++ 20.9. in Salzburg: Demo gegen den Gipfel der Abschottung und sozialen Kontrolle +++ Rückblicke: Summercamp We`ll Come United, Internationale Demo in Ventimiglia +++ Ausblicke: 13.10. in Karlsruhe: Landesweite Demo gegen Nationalismus, Rassismus, Abschiebung; Transnational Social Strike Treffen im November 2018 in Stockholm

Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde,

zunächst kurz in eigener Sache. Die Sommerausgabe des Kompass kommt diesmal etwas verspätet, dafür etwas „dicker“ und der nächste Newsletter soll bereits Ende August erscheinen. Denn wir hoffen und wollen mitwirken, dass sich der September zu einem besonderen Monat vielfältiger und dynamischer Initiativen gegen Rassismus und Ausgrenzung und für Bewegungsfreiheit und gleiche Rechte auswächst. Eine erste Vorschau findet sich unten im Kalender: von dezentralen Aktivitäten zum dritten Jahrestages des „March of Hope“ ab 4.9. bis zur großen We`ll Come United Parade in Hamburg am 29.9.!

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From the Sea to the City!

27. Juli 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für From the Sea to the City! · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer

Alarmphone | 27.07.2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 11 June – 22 July 2018

About 1,500 counted fatalities this year – highest death count ever in June due to Salvini & Co +++ Open harbours and corridors of solidarity demanded by mayors and civil society +++ More sea-arrivals in Spain than Italy +++ Developments in all three Mediterranean regions +++ Summaries of 187 Alarm Phone distress cases

Introduction

At the time of writing, forty people, including two pregnant women, are still stranded at sea. After a dangerous journey on a small wooden boat, they had reached international waters and the Maltese search and rescue zone. They were rescued but Malta did not allocate a safe harbour to them as they were legally supposed to do and they definitely did not want to allow them to Maltese land. Italy and other EU member states did not want them either. And Tunisia, scared to set a precedent, also refused to let the people to land. Only the crew of the Sarost V supply vessel on which they currently are, showed solidarity, responsibility, and humanity. For more than two weeks now, the forty are literally stuck at sea, with no government allowing them into a harbour – a wholly undignified spectacle.1

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Erneut Rettungsschiff blockiert

18. Juli 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Erneut Rettungsschiff blockiert · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Libyen, Malta, Tunesien · Tags: , ,

taz | 18.07.2018

Kein Hafen will die Sarost V einlaufen lassen. Jetzt liegt sie vor dem tunesischen Zarzis, doch die dortige Regierung will einen Präzedenzfall vermeiden.

Christian Jakob

BERLIN taz | Wieder darf im Mittelmeer ein Schiff mit Geretteten keinen Hafen anlaufen. Seit Montagnacht um ein Uhr liegt die Sarost V mit 40 Menschen etwa drei Seemeilen vor der Hafenstadt Zarzis, im Süden von Tunesien. Die Behörden des Landes verweigern dem Schiff die Erlaubnis, anzulegen – ebenso wie zuvor Malta und Italien.

Am vergangenen Freitag war ein Holzboot mit 40 Menschen etwa 140 Kilometer nördlich der libyschen Stadt Zuwara in Seenot geraten. Das Boot hatte einige Tage zuvor in Libyen abgelegt, dann setzte der Motor aus. Wie die taz aus zuverlässiger Quelle erfuhr, soll es sich um Menschen aus Ägypten, Bangladesch, Kamerun, Senegal, Guinea, Elfenbeinküste und Sierra Leone handeln. An Bord sind laut tunesischem Roten Halbmond auch zwei Schwangere.

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40 Boat-people: Seenotrettung an Öl-Plattform – Alarmphone

17. Juli 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für 40 Boat-people: Seenotrettung an Öl-Plattform – Alarmphone · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Libyen, Tunesien · Tags: ,
Last Saturday, we were alerted to a boat in distress carrying 40 people from Sub-Sahara Africa and Egypt, which had started from Libya. They were rescued by a supply vessel called Sarost 5 near the platform Astrat off the coast of Tunisia in international waters. They were provided food by the Tunisian military and were later brought to the platform itself. The supply vessel then took course on Sfax/Tunisia, to disembark the people. The authorities there, however, refused to allow them to land. They then called Malta and Italy, who also refused to take them. They were told to land in Zarzis/Tunisia. But now, since Monday the 16th of July, at 1 am, they are also blocked from entering the port there.
 
We are appalled by the fact that the cruel politics of the Italian interior minister Salvini has reached the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. We are sickened by such political manoeuvres that plays ping pong with the lives of people. We call upon all parties to remember their duties to rescue those who are in need. Free movement for all!

Over 2000 Alarm Phone Cases – No Reason for Celebration

13. Juni 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Over 2000 Alarm Phone Cases – No Reason for Celebration · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags:

Alarm Phone | 12.06.2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 30 April – 10 June 2018

+++ 784 counted Deaths at Sea in 2018 +++ New Italian Government escalates Situation at Sea +++ Palermo Charter process toward Corridors of Solidarity +++ Remarkable Rise in Boat-Migration between Morocco and Spain +++ New ‘Mare Liberum’ Counter-Surveillance project in the Aegean +++ Developments in all three Mediterranean regions +++ Summaries of 58 Alarm Phone distress cases

Introduction

Since October 2014, when we launched the Alarm Phone project, we have worked on more than 2,000 emergency cases at sea – 2,054 to be precise. In the Aegean Sea, we dealt with 1,582 cases, in the Western Mediterranean with 279, and in the Central Mediterranean with 193. When we speak of distress cases, we speak of boats whose passengers find themselves in life-threatening situations. In some situations, we tried to support groups of five, in others groups of five hundred. Looking back, nobody in our project could have predicted such high number of distress situations, and nobody would have liked to see them go into the thousands. Over the past six weeks alone, we had 58 cases, most of which took place in the Western Mediterranean. That we are still called from all three regions of the Mediterranean and have to listen to people in acute distress is not a reason to celebrate. Some of them did not make it to Europe. They were pushed-back by European forces, intercepted by Europe’s allies, or they drowned in their attempt to find a better place for them to live. Even those who survived are marked by the often-harrowing experiences they made, at sea and before, during their often lengthy journeys of escape. When we launched the hotline, we made clear that we did not see it as a solution to migrant death at sea – the only real solution would be a radical change in the ways in which Europe governs its borders. Now, three-and-a-half years later, we still raise the same demands as the dying the Mediterranean continues.

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A Deadly Weekend in all three Regions of the Mediterranean

04. Juni 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für A Deadly Weekend in all three Regions of the Mediterranean · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags: ,

Alarmphone | 04.06.2018

Yesterday, in a short statement, we condemned the violence of EU borders that had led to the death of dozens of precarious travellers in the Aegean Sea, and in the Central Mediterranean. Now, after a weekend in which we were involved in various distress cases, we want to highlight the devastation that has taken place in all three regions of the Mediterranean Sea over the last three days.

Off Tunisia, following yesterday’s shipwreck, the death toll has increased to over 50, and more can be presumed to have died, as many remain missing.

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Solidarity with the Rescuers Facing Charges in Mytilene

07. Mai 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Solidarity with the Rescuers Facing Charges in Mytilene · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags: , , ,

Alarmphone | 06.05.2018

We stand in solidarity with the five rescuers who face a court case on Lesvos, Greece, tomorrow. They have been saving lives at sea and for this, they are facing charges of human trafficking with high prison sentences, instead of being honoured for the tremendous work they have done.

They appear before the court on Monday 7th of May, in Mytilene, Lesvos, and the proceedings will conclude on Wednesday. Accused are three fire-fighters from Spain, of the organisation Proem-Aid, also Salam Aldeen, and another person from Team Humanity. All of them arrived in Lesvos in late 2015 to do sea rescue, a time when arrivals were at there highest, and they were arrested on the 14th of January 2016 after returning from a search-mission at sea. Salam Aldeen, one of the accused, has been prevented from leaving Greece for many months and during this time has continued his support for those who suffer from the EU-borders on the shore. The boat of Team Humanity remained confiscated.

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Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 19 March – 29 April 2018

04. Mai 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 19 March – 29 April 2018 · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer

Alarmphone | 03.05.2018

+++ 587 Deaths at Sea in 2018 +++ Alarm Phone Actions and Campaigns +++ Situation in the Western Mediterranean, Central Mediterranean, and Aegean Sea +++ Summaries of 40 Alarm Phone distress cases

NTRODUCTION

Over the past six weeks, the period of time covered in this report, we have once again witnessed devastating violence in the Mediterranean. Dozens have drowned and many have gone missing. Hundreds were returned to places they tried to escape from, back into conditions of suffering. We are nearing 600 deaths this year, while the overall number of arrivals has dramatically decreased. In the meantime, the criminalisation of non-governmental rescuers continues. In the overview of the different Mediterranean regions, we will elaborate in some greater detail on these disheartening processes of deterrence, forcible return, and criminalisation. This first part will begin, however, with the political campaigns that the Alarm Phone has been involved in over the past six weeks, showing that Europe will not be allowed to foster its murderous regime without contestation.

Migrant boats still reach Europe. Over the past six weeks, the Alarm Phone has engaged in 40 emergency cases, all of which took place in the Western and Eastern Mediterranean – with 9 cases coming from Morocco and 31 from Turkey. This is not surprising if we look at the overall numbers – with over 2,900 people arriving on the Aegean islands only in April, we have the highest figure per month so far this year, and with over 4,300 arrivals to Spain this year, sea-migration continuous in relatively high numbers also in the Western Mediterranean. Besides supporting travellers at sea through our 24/7 emergency hotline, we have engaged in several political campaigns and actions.

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„The struggle of refugee women across the sea“

13. April 2018 · Kommentare deaktiviert für „The struggle of refugee women across the sea“ · Kategorien: Alarm Phone, Mittelmeer · Tags:

The NewArab | 10.04.2018

Stories of women struggling across sea borders are rarely heard

Marta Bellingreri

Destinity wanted to cross the Italian-French border in the Alps in hopes of safely reaching France to seek asylum and better care. She was pregnant and sick.

The French police found Destinity and her husband at the crossing, but they were pushed back and left in Bardonecchia, an Italian town in the city of Turin, well-known for skiing tourists. Heavily pregnant Destinity was abandoned in a snowy town near the Alps border during one of the coldest winters in Europe. She then spent a month at a hospital close to Turin where she gave birth to a baby weighing less than two pounds. The day after, Destinity died.

March 22, 2018 marked yet another tragic day for the European border regime. Destinity’s story may be one of the latest, but it definitely is not the first of its kind. An insightful report, written by the members of the international collective Watch the Med Alarm Phone (WTM-AP), highlighted voices and stories of women from different nationalities and continents who have struggled across sea and borders.

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