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"While we are confronted with a lot of despair, we have also been
inspired uncountable times by the willingness to overcome the sea and to
move on to desired places throughout Europe."
Watch The Med Alarm Phone's 1 Year Anniversary Statement
They grew stronger, louder and more visible every day in the past
months: the incredible social and political struggles of refugees and
migrants for the freedom of movement. To overcome the Mediterranean Sea
in small overcrowded boats is one of the most dangerous aspects of these
migration journeys towards the European Union as safe and legal pathways
are closed down and fenced off by its government.
Especially since April this year, our Alarm Phone is called every day by
people in distress at sea, or by their families, communities and
friends. We try to ensure that their calls are being heard and that
rescue operations are quickly being launched. In the Central and Western
Mediterranean Sea as well as in the Aegean Sea, we have been engaged in
hundreds of distress situations and have also documented grave human
rights violations.
On the 11th of October 2015, the Alarm Phone turned one year old. We
consciously chose that date last year to launch our project as it was
the anniversary of a shipwreck that had caused the death of more than
200 people. The vessel’s precarious situation had been known, but the
Maltese and Italian authorities were unwilling to rapidly respond to the
distress of more than 400 people in the Central Mediterranean Sea. A
year later we began to operate the so-called Alarm Phone, a hotline for
people in distress at sea when trying to cross maritime borders. Back
then we asked: What would have happened if the boatpeople could have
directed a second call to an independent phone-hotline through which a
team of civil society members could raise alarm and put immediate
pressure on authorities to rescue?
We did not want to stand by any longer as more and more atrocities were
unfolding before our eyes and we did not want to merely condemn
responsible authorities in the aftermath of mass deaths. We decided to
directly intervene in the most deadly borderzone of the world and
created a phone line that is available 24/7 and run by a transnational
network of activist and migrant groups, located in various settings on
both sides of the Mediterranean Sea. While we are not able to physically
intervene, with no rescue vessels at our disposal, we offer advice and
raise alarm when people in immediate distress are not promptly rescued
or even attacked and pushed-back by European border authorities.
In the past year, our network of activists has grown and we are now more
than 100 people situated in various cities and countries. We gained the
support of many migrant communities, individual members of civil
society, as well as human rights activists and organisations. We now
also cooperate with various activist collectives that support people on
the move throughout and beyond Europe. We want to thank to all of them,
because we have learned so much in the process of engaging with you. We
want to particularly thank our young Syrian friends who bravely support
travellers on boats every night and inform us in cases of distress.
When we launched the Alarm Phone, we could not have imagined how
dramatic the situation along Europe’s maritime borders would become in
2015, with more than half a million people able to cross them by the end
of September and with, once again, more than 3000 people disappearing,
drowning, and dying.
Within one single week in April, more than 1200 people died in
shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya.
These deaths were the direct consequence of Europe’s unwillingness to
create an adequate and large-scale rescue operation at sea. In the
aftermath, the EU did not introduce measures to prevent the dying but
extended its policies of deterrence by launching a military
‘anti-smuggler’ campaign called Eunavfor Med and by tripling the budget
for the operation Triton of Europe’s border control agency Frontex.
Various civilian humanitarian rescue vessels, such as those of MSF, MOAS
and Sea-Watch, have tried to fill the void and have rescued thousands of
lives.
In the summer months, more and more people drowned also in the Aegean
Sea which has become the most frequented sea route into Europe. While
the stretches between Turkey and Greece are short, the sea, its currents
and strong winds turn journeys from time to time into incredibly
dangerous endeavours. And, to make matters worse, we have witnessed
several times how masked border units attacked refugee vessels,
threatened their passengers, stole there engine and at times punctured
their boats. Nevertheless, thousands continue to arrive daily on the
small Greek islands and never was their movement towards their
destination as fast as it is today.
The least frequented sea route currently is the one between Morocco and
Spain but also there dozens of deaths were recorded. More often than
not, the Moroccan Navy forcibly intercepted travellers on precarious
vessels and returned them to the place they seek to escape.
In hundreds of distress situations we assisted people in urgent need. We
were often able to locate their vessels through GPS data, obtain
information about their emergency situation and give psychological
assistance, to then alarm the responsible rescue services and make
pressure so that they would intervene as quickly as possible. While we
are confronted with a lot of despair and human suffering in moments of
distress at sea which is not easy to deal with for ours shift teams, we
have also been inspired uncountable times by the willingness to struggle
on, to overcome the sea, and then move to desired places throughout Europe.
This summer of migration has still not come to an end but what we have
witnessed in the past months is truly historic already. The movement of
hundreds of thousands of people provoked the biggest crisis of the
European border regime up to date. While Europe’s policies of deterrence
seek to turn journeys into struggles over life and death, these people
simply enacted their freedom of movement by disobediently crossing one
border after the other. While countries tried to resurrect their
borders, positioned police and military forces along them, and built
higher razor-wired fences, they failed to block these human mobilities.
These travellers are Europe’s newest members and they will change and
transform Europe forever. Thousands of European citizens have welcomed
them and struggled in solidarity with them, for safe passage and
arrival, for rights and accommodation, and against repression and
deportation.
The Alarm Phone is now one year old and we wish we could say that our
work is no longer needed as there now are safe ways of entry for those
who are escaping for various reasons. While this is not in sight in the
near future and the border regimes seeks to find new ways to violently
exclude people on the move, we promise to struggle on. We understand
ourselves as a movement for global justice and informed by this
perspective we call for ‘Ferries not Frontex’, the freedom of movement
for all, safe and legal pathways into Europe and a welcoming culture for
those who newly arrive.
We would like to thank all those who supported the Alarm Phone during
the past year politically and socially, with their signatures and
donations. We would like to thank in particular:
-- All the hundreds of refugees on boats who called us: your confidence
and courage were gifts to us. It is your determination that animates us
and allows us to struggle on.
-- Father Mussie Zerai; all the networks of Syrian activists; Nawal
Soufi and her whole team; the Macedonian collective and all others who
do a similar job like us and inspired us with your knowledge and commitment.
-- All the brave fisherman who saved hundreds of people in distress in
Turkish and Greek waters; our friends from Sea-Watch; the crews of
Médecins Sans Frontières and MOAS.
-- All the crews of cargo vessels who did not hesitate to quickly react
to SOS calls and helped, even if they were not equipped or trained to
conduct rescue operations.
-- All those coastguard members in rescue operation centres and those
who went out to sea and gave their best to rescue migrants and refugees
in distress and who, unlike some of their colleagues, were not involved
in violent and inhumane practices, including non-rescue, push backs,
attacks and interceptions.
We also thank all our friends who shared their own experiences of
crossing the sea on boats with us: Exchanging with you gave us a much
better understanding of the whole situation. And all of the uncountable
friends who listen to our shift-team members when they need someone to
speak to. All of you who struggle every day for the freedom of movement.
Last but not least, we are always happy to receive donations for our
project.
Contact information:
Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht & Migration
Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin
IBAN: DE68 10050000 0610024264
BIC: BELADEBEXXX
Catchword: WatchTheMed-AP
Contact & Information:
wtm-alarm-phone@antira.info
www.facebook.com/watchthemed.alarmphone
www.alarmphone.org
