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...
Press Release Immediate Thursday 2 July 2020 LONDON.UK. Human Rights at Sea has today signed the Open Letter to the IMO Secretary General Mr Kitack Lim prepared by the civil liberties organisation Statewatch which was delivered on 29 June 2020 signed by hundreds of individuals and organisations. The letter openly calls on the Secretary-General to revoke the...
Press Release Thursday 2 July 2020 HRAS. LONDON. The team of SOS MEDITERRANEE has rescued 180 people in four different operations in five days within the Maltese and Italian Search and Rescue Regions. The first two rescues occurred one week ago today. There are presently 180 survivors on the Ocean Viking, including 2 women,...
OP-ED 5 July 2019 Photo credit: Reuters Geneva, Switzerland. Captain Carola Rackete has now been freed, but the European political controversy continues. The judicial decision delivered a much needed victory for both common-sense and humanitarian acts of rescue at sea, thereby setting a precedent to be reflected on for all vessel Captains and policy makers...
Press Release Friday 10 May 2019 London.UK. As a statement against the criminalisation of those helping people on the move, the Swiss Paul Grüninger Foundation is awarding this year’s prize to the Iuventa 10 humanitarian search and rescue NGO vessel, whilst the crew is under criminal investigations in Italy. The prize money of 50,000...
Press Release 26th February 2019 London. UK. Human Rights at Sea has published a new Briefing Note on the ‘Legal and Policy Matters Arising from the Increased Criminalisation of the Civil Society Search and Rescue Activities in the Mediterranean’. This is the second publication on the issue of the increasing levels of criminalisation of civil...
COMMENTARY Thursday 6 December 2018 Geneva. Update to 3 December Press Release on flagging of the Aquarius Switzerland. The country of Henry Dunant, father of humanitarian principles, has responded to a popular request and parliamentary motion to allow the Aquarius, Search and Rescue (SAR) vessel of SOS Méditerranée and Médecins sans Frontières, to sail...
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...
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...
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...
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...
IRAN. Iran-based Human Rights at Sea intern, Hajar Hejasi, has published an article in Farsi by invitation in the Iranian newspaper Sore Israfil on the Sanchi Collision incident. In her article in Farsi, Hajar presents an account of the most important highlights of the incident, the response from the Chinese maritime authorities and the whole management...
Supporting SAR NGOs with Voluntary Guidance for use at Sea Human Rights at Sea has been assisting one of its Support Entities, the charitable Foundation Hope Not Hate, to produce new voluntary guidance materials for search and rescue NGOs operating in the Mediterranean under potential threat by Far Rights activists whose intention is to...
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...
PRESS RELEASE 31 March 2017 Human Rights at Sea outlines the first voluntary Code of Conduct for Search and Rescue NGOs in the European Parliament On Wednesday 29 March, CEO David Hammond spoke in the European Parliament to outline the new voluntary ‘Code of Conduct for Search and Rescue Operations undertaken by civil...
