Mission report 5 – 2025 (21.6.-12.7.2025)
Detained in port: waiting and preparations
The crew met in Porto Empedocle – on our motorsailer NADIR, which was still moored at the time. We used the time during which we were not allowed to set sail and therefore could not come to the aid of the people at sea for intensive training and to familiarize ourselves even better with the ship. It was only on June 28 – after 20 days of arbitrary detention – that we finally received permission to leave port. Tragically, the NADIR was to return to the same state of blockade after this operation.
On the way to the operational area south of Lampedusa, we continued our training – including with rescue equipment such as centifloats – in order to be prepared for possible emergencies at sea, especially in the event that people are in the water.
First encounter with 19 people in distress at sea
On the morning of July 1, we discovered a small wooden boat in an unstable position – on board: 19 people, including a baby, no life jackets, no safety equipment. We immediately distributed life jackets and water and contacted the relevant authorities. As long as the boat was adrift at sea, we stayed nearby until the Italian coastguard finally arrived and brought the people to Lampedusa.
Despite our purely accompanying role, we were subsequently ordered to Lampedusa to submit an extraordinary report in person – a bureaucratic effort that unnecessarily interrupted our operational capability in the area. We had not taken any people on board and could have sent a report by email.
Official hurdles instead of rescue missions
We tried in vain to make alternative proposals to the authorities to remain in the operational area. Instead, we were forced to sail out of the area of operation for over 12 hours – during a period in which, according to ALARMPHONE, at least three further emergencies were reported, the outcome of which is still unclear. Such measures appear to be a deliberate means of preventing smaller vessels like the NADIR from carrying out their humanitarian work – similar to the practice of assigning remote “safe havens”.
Rescue of 59 people at sea
On July 4, we received a tip-off from SEA-WATCH’s SEABIRD3 reconnaissance aircraft about a boat in distress about 1.5 hours from our position. On arrival, we found 59 people on a heavily overloaded wooden boat. The people were exhausted, seasick, dehydrated and had been at sea for two days after setting out from Zuwarah (Libya). They reported seeing people below deck, which was particularly worrying for us. We could not rule out the possibility that people were in acute mortal danger. There is a considerable risk of suffocation in these ‘lower decks’ due to the gasoline vapors in the absence of air circulation and lack of oxygen. Last year, a NADIR crew had recovered ten lifeless bodies from such a room.
In addition to the uncertainty about the health of the people below deck, the risk of the wooden boat capsizing was high. For these reasons, we decided to take everyone on board the NADIR to ensure everyone’s safety and to make sure that no one remained hidden below deck.
The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Rome responded to our report and assigned Lampedusa to us as a safe haven. The Tunisian authorities, however, did not respond. The crossing took around eight hours. Meanwhile, the survivors rested on deck of the NADIR. On July 5, we arrived in Lampedusa early in the morning. All the people there were able to disembark safely.
Administrative measures instead of humanity
The very next day, the captain of the NADIR was again called to the Capitaneria was summoned – a familiar procedure that had announced the arrest during the previous operation. The accusation of this time’s blockade was that the Mayday Relay the Maltese MRCC had not been informed – although the obligation to forward the information lies with all Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers. The consequence: a renewed ban on departure.
20 days of standstill: a politically motivated blockade
This made it clear that our ability to operate was once again restricted for political reasons. On July 10, we received official notification of the 20-day detention by the Prefecture of Agrigento, the region’s responsible legal institution. For the second time in just one month, NADIR – and with it our essential work – was deliberately paralyzed.
The determination
We had been assigned Lampedusa as a safe harbor and set our course. After several hours of sailing, an Italian coastguard ship appeared and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Rome told us on the phone that we should hand over particularly vulnerable people to this ship and then sail to Porto Empedocle in Sicily with the rest of the people. Porto Empedocle was about a 24-hour crossing from where we were. We expressed our reservations about handing over a few people to the coast guard ship: firstly, the maneuver would have been dangerous, as the NADIR was very full with our 112 guests and we would hardly have been able to hand over lines safely. Handing over just a few people would also have led to unrest or even panic on board and could have compromised the stability of our ship. Secondly, we were concerned about the language barriers: There was a risk that we could separate families or that we would not have been able to spot invisible vulnerabilities. We communicated these concerns to the MRCC by email, but never received a response. The local coastguard unit also repeated to us to keep on course for Lampedusa – so we continued towards Lampedusa. When we arrived at the port, we asked for permission to enter, which we received after a few minutes. Everyone was able to go ashore safely.
Image rights: Gaelle Henkens
