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We are calling on the European Union to protect the lives and rights of people on the move.

THE EUROPEAN BORDER AND COAST GUARD agency should be saving lives.

Urge Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens to make changes today.

What’s happening?

In this time, the EU and individual member states have increasingly abdicated their responsibilities to protect life and safety at sea. Instead, the EU spends millions of euros to get other countries to intercept boats carrying migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees and disembark them in places where they risk serious human rights abuses.

In June 2023, the EU’s border and coast guard agency, Frontex, spotted and alerted Greek authorities about a severely overcrowded boat, the Adriana, in their search and rescue region.

Frontex didn't issue a mayday alert because, according to them, there was no “imminent risk to human life.”

15 hours later, the boat capsized and sank, leading to the death of more than 600 women, men and children.

I can’t forget … At night, when I sleep, I can only think of when I fell into the water and sank.

Hamza, an Adriana shipwreck survivor

Frontex has the responsibility and capability to ensure the safety of people in danger at sea.

Frontex has the capacity to make positive, life-saving changes that ensure catastrophes like the Pylos shipwreck never happen again.

How?

The agency has drones and planes in the skies above the Mediterranean that spot boats in distress – this is invaluable information that should be used to ensure people are rescued and taken to a place of safety, instead of facilitating interceptions. There is no excuse for inaction.

“All I want is to follow my dream and have a better life. I just want to start my life in a safer country where I can have a family.”

Nada, a 34-year-old pregnant Syrian woman

“All I want is to follow my dream and have a better life. I just want to start my life in a safer country where I can have a family.”

Nada, a 34-year-old pregnant Syrian woman

Nada had tried five times to leave Libya before she was rescued by an NGO rescue ship. Each other time she had been intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guards and put in immigration detention.

These are immediate steps Frontex can take to save lives:

The agency routinely alerts coastal authorities to the positions of these distressed boats but rarely communicates that information to NGO rescue ships in the area and rarely issues emergency alerts, which are sent out to all vessels in the vicinity.

If Frontex systematically alerted NGOs and other vessels about boats in distress, it would help make timely rescues possible.

01

Ensure the location of boats in distress sighted by Frontex aircraft is transmitted systematically to non-governmental rescue organizations in the area.

02

Issue more frequent emergency alerts based on a broad notion of distress when an unseaworthy boat is spotted.

03

Provide monitoring of distress cases, including when requested.

Nongovernmental rescue organizations who are filling a deadly gap in search and rescue operations face systematic obstruction and defamation. Still, they persevere to save lives.

“At sea, you can see things clearly. You help people because if you don’t, they might die. With a little effort you make sure they don’t die.”

- Riccardo Gatti, Médecins Sans Frontières Search and Rescue Team Leader.

You can read about the latest sea journey Human Rights Watch took with nongovernmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières to rescue migrants heading for Europe here.

“I’m grateful to SOS MED and all the others that take life seriously…I know I will be able to walk my path to where I want to be because where there is life there is hope.”

Precious is from Nigeria and was rescued by an NGO ship in 2022. He now holds refugee status in Italy.

He made this painting inspired by the journey, which now hangs on the Ocean Viking , the SOS Méditerranée ship.

“It’s not my best work, but it’s the most important work.”

These changes would help Frontex meet its obligations under international law of the sea, refugee law, and human rights law.

It’s time for Frontex to demonstrate unequivocally it will act #WithHumanity.

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The #WithHumanity campaign was made possible thanks in part
to the generosity of players of the Swedish Postcode Lottery.