15.08.2020

Cast off — The Sea-Watch 4 starts its first rescue mission.

The rescue mission of the Sea-Watch 4 is the first mission supported by a broad civil society alliance: Over 550 alliance partners are currently supporting United4Rescue.

"The situation off the Libyan coast is still dramatic", says Michael Schwickart of United4Rescue. "Therefore we are glad that our ship is finally on its way to the area of operations to rescue people in distress."

In the last eight weeks alone, Sea-Watch's civilian reconnaissance aircraft have documented over 2,100 people in distress in the central Mediterranean. In many of these cases, the people were brought back to Libya by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard in violation of international law. In the meantime, almost all active sea rescue vessels have been detained in Italy because of alleged safety deficiencies or are prevented from deployment by unfulfillable conditions.