MEDITERRANEAN: Over 1,000 Recorded Deaths in Central Mediterranean Sea in 2024 ― NGOs Mark Ten Years of Civilian Sea Rescue in Central Mediterranean Sea Amid Accusations of ‘Double Standards’ Surrounding Bayesian Yacht Tragedy ― Human Rights NGO Accuse…

• The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has estimated that more than 1,000 people have died or been reported missing in the central Mediterranean Sea since the start of 2024.
• Civilian search and rescue (SAR) organisations have commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) rescue operation on 25 August 2014 that marked the start of a decade of civilian sea rescue in the central Mediterranean Sea.
• A new report by Human Rights Watch has revealed that authorities in Cyprus have pushed Syrian refugees back to Lebanon from where they have been forcibly returned to Syria.
• The Greek coastguard has reported two incidents of people smugglers pushing migrants overboard to avoid arrest in the Aegean Sea and has fired on a migrant boat resulting in the death of one passenger.
• The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) rescue ship the Geo Barents has been issued with a 60-day detention order in Italy due to alleged violations of maritime security measures.
• ECRE member organisation the aditus Foundation and its founder Dr Neil Falzon have received the 2024 PRO ASYL Human Rights Award.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has estimated that more than 1,000 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean Sea since the start of 2024. According to data published by IOM Libya, there were 421 confirmed deaths and 603 people reported missing between 1 January and 17 August. During the same period, 13,763 people were intercepted at sea and taken back to Libya.

On 25 August, civilian search and rescue (SAR) organisations commemorated a decade of civilian sea rescue in the central Mediterranean Sea. The date marked the tenth anniversary of a rescue operation that was undertaken by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) organisation on 25 August 2014. Reflecting on the anniversary, the head of the SAR NGO Sea-Eye, Gorden Isler, decried the lack of state-organised SAR efforts. “Over the past ten years, civilian sea rescue organisations have taken over the responsibility generally held by EU member states. Much has changed politically in that time, but the humanitarian situation in the Mediterranean remains dire,” he said, adding: “Instead of relying on state-organised sea rescues, Europe continues its isolation policy. Laws against civilian sea rescue organisations have been created in Italy and, worst of all, thousands of people are still dying every year in search of asylum and protection”. “The EU Member States must stop criminalising our work and finally create a European state sea rescue organisation with a clear mission to save as many lives as possible in the Mediterranean,” he concluded.

The tenth anniversary of the start of organised civilian SAR operations in the central Mediterranean Sea came a week after seven people died when a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily. The scale of the efforts involved in trying to rescue the victims of the Bayesian yacht tragedy and the global media attention that it generated have led to accusations by several SAR NGOs of “double standards”. In a statement to the Guardian, Sea-Eye said: “Sadly, it makes a difference in the media, in our society and in politics, who is drowning. We have noticed that the coverage of the situation in the Mediterranean, of tragedies or of our rescues in recent months has not been nearly as extensive as in the case of the Sicilian shipwreck in recent days”. Another SAR NGO Sea-Watch posted on Instagram that, days after the sinking of the Bayesian, its efforts to alert authorities about a dinghy with 43 people on board that was sinking elsewhere in the central Mediterranean Sea had been ignored. “That’s no coincidence; it’s the EU’s double standard,” it wrote. Commenting on the apparent discrepancy between the level of authorities’ efforts in different rescue situations, Luca Casarani from the SAR NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans said: “It is not wrong to intervene to save rich individuals aboard yachts or tourists; what is wrong is the inconsistency in applying these rescue strategies to save migrants in need”. His comments were echoed in the Sea-Watch statement: “We see active non-assistance for people fleeing to safety every day. Life-saving efforts must not depend on the colour of someone’s skin or the size of their wallet,” it wrote.

A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed that authorities in Cyprus have pushed Syrian refugees back to Lebanon from where they have been forcibly returned to Syria. According to the report, the Lebanese army intercepts Syrian refugees who are trying to reach Europe and expels them to Syria whilst the Cypriot coastguard and other Cypriot security forces send Syrians whose boats have reached Cyprus back to Lebanon. Nadia Hardman from HRW described it as “a situation where people are held in a no man’s land between Lebanon and Syria and a collusion between the Lebanese and Cypriot authorities and smuggling networks to send back refugees to Syria”. HRW has accused Cyprus of “violating the prohibition on indirect, chain, or secondary refoulement, by expelling Syrian refugees to Lebanon where they risk onward expulsion to Syria”. It has also called on the EU and other EU member states to, inter alia, hold Cyprus accountable for human rights violations against migrants and asylum seekers, and state that no parts of Syria are safe for the return of refugees. On 4 September, in response to a request by EUobserver, the European Commission “declined to say” if it considered any parts of Syria to be safe for returns.

According to the Greek coastguard, people smugglers who operate in the eastern Aegean Sea may have developed a dangerous new tactic to avoid capture: pushing some of their passengers overboard. The German Press Agency reported two incidents based on accounts from the Greek coast guard during the weekend of 24-25 August. In the first incident, five people were forced to jump into the sea from a speedboat that was being pursued by a Greek coastguard vessel off the island of Kos. In the second, three people were pushed off a speedboat off the island of Symi under similar circumstances.

The two incidents occurred a day after a 39-year-old migrant was killed “probably by a bullet” after the Greek coastguard opened fire on a boat that was carrying 14 people off Symi en route from Türkiye. According to a coastguard statement, “Warning shots were fired to prevent an immediate risk to the coastguard vessel and its crew (…) and subsequently targeted shots were fired at the outboard engine aimed at immobilising the speedboat”. The nationality of the dead man was not confirmed but it is believed that he may have been from Kuwait. A Greek prosecutor has reportedly ordered the arrest of the coastguard officer who fired the shots.

On 26 August, authorities in Italy issued a 60-day detention order to the Geo Barents rescue vessel. The ship, which is operated by the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), received the detention order after it undertook several rescue operations on 23 August before docking in the port of Salerno. According to MSF, it is alleged to have “failed to provide timely information to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and to have endangered people’s lives”. In a statement published on 28 August, MSF’s Juan Matias Gil said: “We have been sanctioned for simply fulfilling our legal duty to save lives”. He added: “This is yet another example of how much the Piantedosi Decree not only contravenes international and European laws but is also contradictory to the obligations to act in the face of a state of necessity when human lives are at risk. The authorities are forcing us to prioritise either saving people at sea or the freedom of the rescue ship”. The current detention order is the third to have been issued to the Geo Barents and the twenty-third since the enactment of the ‘Piantedosi Decree’ (Decree Law No.1/2023) in January 2023. MSF has urged the Italian authorities to “release the Geo Barents from this detention to fulfil its duty of rescuing lives and cease immediately obstructing humanitarian lifesaving assistance at sea”.

Elsewhere, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has confirmed that it will monitor the implementation of the Italy-Albania Protocol. In a statement published on 14 August, the UNHCR wrote that it would undertake a monitoring role for three months “to ensure that the right to seek asylum is protected and that the processes put in place under the Protocol are consistent with relevant international and regional human rights standards, are fair, and promote protection and solutions for those in need of international protection”. It added that the funding for the monitoring mission would come from sources other than either Italy or Albania in order to ensure its independence, and that it would it would make its recommendations available to the Italian government and other interested actors at the end of the three-month period.

On 29 August, 38 Maltese civil society organisations, including ECRE member organisations the aditus Foundation and Jesuit Refugee Service Malta, issued a joint press statement in response to the recent arrest and detention of a number of Ethiopian nationals. According to the signatories, “these individuals are now being threatened with deportation after having lived and worked legally in Malta for many years, with the knowledge and permission of the authorities”. The organisations have appealed to the Maltese government to “immediately release the detained Ethiopian nationals” and “create a pathway to regularisation for these and other rejected asylum-seekers who have lived and worked in Malta for years with the authorisation of the competent authorities”.

The aditus Foundation and its founder Dr Neil Falzon have been awarded the 2024 PRO ASYL Foundation Human Rights Award. In a press release issued on 3 September, Karl Kopp from ECRE member organisation the PRO ASYL Foundation said: “Neil Falzon and the team at the aditus foundation use their extensive legal expertise and provide personal support for survivors of boat disasters and victims of human rights violations in detention centers in Malta. The awardees work under very challenging political conditions. With courage and determination, Neil Falzon and his team oppose the ongoing erosion of refugee and human rights and the weakening of the rule of law in Malta, as well as in Europe”.

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