Press Release 9 September 2021 London. UK. Following a 48 hour period of ongoing controversy after the UK Home Office suggested that push-backs of migrant boats crossing the English Channel would be used in limited and specific circumstances by UK Border Force vessels to redirect migrants into French territorial waters, the BBC has spoken with...
London. UK. On the English south coast bordering The English Channel the number of migrants and refugees crossing from France to England seeking a better future has seen a surge this week with a period of good weather. Today, it has been announced in the UK press that the UK Home Office is preparing for the UK Border Force to push back boats containing migrants and refugees into French waters thereby challenging international and maritime law positions for the long-standing assurance of safety of life at sea.
Press Release 6 August 2021 London. UK. VIEWER DISCRETION REQUIRED. Earlier this week, Human Rights at Sea became aware of a video which first appeared on YouTube originating from The Libyan Observer, Libya, concerning the location of women and children at sea off the Tunisian coast by Tunisian fishermen. The unverified video from a phone...
London. UK. In respect of the ongoing English Channel migrant crossing situation, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) issued a statement on Thursday 8 July 2021 confirming that asylum seekers entering the UK illegally would no longer be prosecuted unless they have been involved in other criminal activity. The position taken is at odds with the UK Home Office and the UK Home Secretary Piri Patel's attempts to bring into force the Nationality and Borders Bill released on Tuesday 6 July.
London. UK. HRAS Commentary. Early last week, the Office of Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, published 'A distress call for human rights', a comprehensive follow-up to the 2019 recommendations drafted in 'Lives saved. Rights protected. Bridging the protection gap for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean'. Human Rights at Sea has reviewed and today, highlights its recommendations in support.
People move. Migration has always been a feature of the human condition and it will always be so. We cannot stop it and efforts to stem it will, in the long run, prove futile. Global population has ballooned in recent years and travel from region to region has increased. More and more people are on the move. Their motives for leaving their homes and seeking lives elsewhere are numerous, but two in particular are relevant to the ‘crisis’ that has developed in recent weeks in the English Channel.
Press Release 18th July 2019 Reproduced Article. GENEVA (18 July 2019) – UN human rights experts* have expressed grave concern over the detention and criminal proceedings in Italy against the German captain of the migrant rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, and stated that the threats to the judge who ruled her release were unlawful. “Rescuing migrants...
Press Release 20 June 2019 London.UK. Against a historic high record of forced displacement that shows that over 70 million people have been forced to flee their home, today on World Refugee Day, Human Rights at Sea stands in solidarity with refugees, with those in refugee-like situations as well as with all individuals seeking international protection. In...
Press Release Thursday 20 July 2018 London.UK. Six days ago, a boat carrying 40 people in distress, including two pregnant women, who sought asylum and protection in Europe had entered the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. The migrant boat was denied entry into Malta. The fact that the migrant boat had reached Malta SAR zone...
HRAS Commentary Monday 9 July 2018 “We could have done something,” – Taking the conscious political decision of leaving persons to drown or suffer from abuse London.UK. Corpses are discovered on Northern African shores, over 600 persons are now missing and feared dead because they embarked on the journey of the deadliest crossing in the...
Press Release 8 May 2018 London. Italy’s collaboration with Libya to stop migrants and asylum seekers reaching Europe is facing a legal challenge over allegations that it has led to grave human rights violations against those crossing the Mediterranean, including torture and slavery. Seventeen survivors of a fatal incident in which a boat carrying migrants found...
Press Release 27 APRIL 2018 London. Human Rights at Sea is closely watching the ongoing situation in the central Mediterranean route, and is deeply concerned with the restrictive asylum policies of the European Union and the general securitisation and criminalisation of search and rescue at sea. What we are witnessing is push backs operations of asylum...
Press Release 21st of March 2018 London. Human Rights at Sea is closely watching the ongoing situation in the central Mediterranean route following the seizure of the NGO Proactiva Open Arms vessel and crew by the Italian authorities in Sicilia during a search and rescue operation. During the operation, the NGO vessel refused to hand the...
Human Rights at Sea comments in the recent article by The Christian Science Monitor about the increasing concern about the actions of the Italian State and European Union in trampling on customary humanitarian principles and international human rights law relating to migrants and refugees returned to Libya, and the well-documented human rights abuses suffered by...
Melanie Glodkiewicz selected as an Erasmus+ Ambassador “My internship has been a life-changing period” Wednesday 14 June 2016 Human Rights at Sea is delighted to announce that a former intern, Miss Melanie Glodkiewicz, has been selected to become a European Erasmus+ Programme ambassador following her work on Mediterranean migrant projects for the charity and while seconded to the...
