Press Release 8 July 2025
NADIR BLOCKED IN PORT – again! Political repression against RESQSHIP continues.
The civilian sailing ship NADIR, operated by the German NGO RESQSHIP, has been hindered of leaving port for the second time in one month. The ship had previously rescued 59 people from a wooden boat in distress in international waters and brought them to safety.
Following a distress relay by the civil aircraft SEABIRD3, NADIR found 59 people on an overcrowded and unseaworthy boat in international waters on the afternoon of 4 July 2025. Having departed from Zuwarah, Libya, two days earlier, the people on board were severely dehydrated. The wooden boat was tilting to one side. NADIR took all shipwrecked persons aboard and headed to the officially assigned Port of Safety, Lampedusa, where everyone disembarked in the early morning of Saturday, 5 July. In the afternoon, the Italian authorities initiated an investigation into NADIR’s recent operation and announced a detention order on the basis of NADIR not having informed the authority of Malta, even though MRCC Rome took over the coordination of the case.
Just four weeks earlier, on 08 June, NADIR was arbitrarily detained by Italian authorities under the new Piantedosi Law after assisting and disembarking 112 people in Lampedusa. Following a 20-day blockade, the ship resumed its patrol of the Central Mediterranean on 28 June to document human rights violations and to support people on the move – just to face repressions again. This law, introduced in 2023 and amended in Fall 2024, is designed to hinder civil actors from engaging in search-and-rescue activities through restrictive administrative measures. This is in line with other European attempts to prevent people from reaching its shores. By funding and enabling militia in Libya, by blocking rescue and monitoring assets and by facilitating illegal pushbacks the European Union has established a sentiment of normalising human rights violations against people on the move.
“If states think that a civil actor contacts the wrong RCC (Rescue Coordination Center), it’s not just in their hands but also the duty of the coordinating authority to inform the competent authorities”, says Merle Dammhayn, spokesperson of RESQSHIP.
However, for years now, European actors have ignored their responsibilities and human rights obligations. Over the past ten years, civil society actors have been stepping in to prevent dying in the Mediterranean Sea where states have failed. Italy’s newest strategy of repressing these civilian efforts includes targeting small sailing vessels like the NADIR through tailor-made legal instruments while Germany cuts its funding for search-and-rescue efforts and refuses basic human rights to migrants on its borders.
RESQSHIP condemns the attempts of repression against its sailing vessel NADIR. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of the vessel. Being subjected to these repressions shows even more, how imperative our work is in the struggle for justice and the right to live for everyone.
#FreeNadir #LetUsSail
About RESQSHIP:
RESQSHIP e. V. has been conducting observation operations in the central Mediterranean since 2019 to draw attention to the precarious situation of people fleeing their homes and to document human rights violations. In emergencies, the crews provide support for sea rescue operations, thereby fulfilling their maritime duty to assist. Since 2021, the crews of the NADIR have assisted more than 12.000 people in distress at sea.
Further information about RESQSHIP: https://resqship.org/
Press contact: Merle Dammhayn
Phone: +39 331 4218860
E-mail: presse@resqship.org
