Hamburg, March 14th 2016 Sea-Watch 2 christening We are happy to announce that our operational vessel for 2016 “Sea-Watch 2” will be ready to leave for the Mediterranean Sea from Hamburg at the end of this week after going through extensive conversion and renovation. Looking at recent political developments in a more and more shielded…

Sea-Watch 2 is today leaving Hamburg to be able to start SAR mission mid April off Libya. We are very happy to leave all renovations behind and finally start our maritime rescue in Central Mediterranean.

We start our night shift the day before yesterday at 11pm. A very calm night, we stay on stand-by on the boat. We keep scanning Greek coastline and by spotting a reflection of a life vest in the darkness we finally find 33 people that have been hiding between rocks for hours because they are afraid…

Sea-Watch tonight assisted to embark 26 people mostly from Iraq that accidentally landed on rocks of south east coast of Lesvos and were stuck there during a night shift. The operation took several hours. All people were brought to land safely.      

Nato operation neglects most urgent need: To save human lives “Sea-Watch is strongly questioning announcements of Nato operation in the Aegean Sea assuming that the mission objective is not compatible with our claim as an NGO to provide SAFE PASSAGE and it is to fear that the deployment will aggravate the situation. A possible deployment…

17 boats arrived. Two dead people: one child and one woman. We assisted 4 boats from 7:40 am to 1 pm. Boat 1: Sea-Watch assisted Greenpeace International with a sinking boat. We boarded around 15 people, including one baby and one pregnant woman. We then passed them to Frontex who brought them to Molyvos. Boat 2: Engine not…

Five boats were guided by Sea-Watch, two needed to be towed due to engine failure, one boat was sinking at arrival. Each boat was totally overcrowded with about 50 people. The people were boarded and brought to harbour safely. Happy faces on board our RIB. Successful cooperation with Proactive Proactiva Open Arms and Greenpeace International…

Financed by crowdfunding donations Sea-Watch could now afford to buy a bigger and more suitable ship for its missions in 2016. The 33m long „Clupea“ is a former research vessel and is currently refitted into „Sea-Watch 2“ in Hamburg to serve as a rescue vessel off the Libyan coast as soon as possible. The ship…

When crossing the sea strait separating Turkey from Greece towards Lesvos, the migrants are often attracted by the sight of the life-vests and rubber boats left on the shores. The bright orange colour of the life-vests orientates the migrants, under the false conviction that if those objects lie there, someone else “made it” before them…

The EU – Turkey agreement has not resulted in preventing the people fleeing to engage in the dangerous sea crossing towards Europe. On the contrary they leave at night and take longer patterns, with a higher risk of lives loss, due to shipwrecks and hypothermia. The past weeks have witnessed three to four deadly incidents…

Photo Credit: MSF A boat carrying about 85 people capsized off the northern coast of Lesvos, Greece, at 2.30pm of 16 December, causing at least two deaths. When arrived on scene, two assistance boats from MSF and Greenpeace began rescuing as many people as possible, with Sea-Watch supporting the search, with a team of hellenic…