MEDITERRANEAN: More deaths of people on the move ― NGO blames Italian policies for hindering civilian search and rescue operations ― Two NGO rescue vessels detained by Italian authorities ― European court rules in favour of Italy in 2017 shipwreck case…

• The Central Mediterranean route has continued to claim the lives of people who try to make the dangerous crossing between North Africa and Europe.
• A new NGO report has blamed measures introduced by the Italian government for hindering the activities of search and rescue (SAR) organisations in the Mediterranean.
• Italian authorities have detained two NGO rescue vessels.
• The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of Italy in a case concerning a 2017 shipwreck off the Libyan coast that led to 20 deaths.
• An investigative report has highlighted the persistent cycle of abuse and hardship faced by unaccompanied minors in reception centres in Greece.

The Central Mediterranean route has continued to claim the lives of people who try to make the dangerous crossing between North Africa and Europe. On 17 June, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that two shipwrecks that had occurred on 12 June and 13 June respectively had resulted in at least 60 deaths, while, on 10 June, it expressed its sadness over media reports about the discovery of ten bodies that had washed ashore near Marsa Matrouh (Egypt) earlier in the month. Elsewhere, Romdhane Ben Amor from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES reported that “tens of bodies of dead migrants” had been found on the eastern coast of Tunisia, particularly in the regions of Sfax and Mahdia, in early June.

A new NGO report has blamed measures introduced by the Italian government for hindering the activities of search and rescue (SAR) organisations in the Mediterranean. The report, which was published by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on 12 June, has highlighted the impact of Italian laws and policies, particularly the Piantedosi Decree and the practice of assigning distant ports, on the ability of SAR NGOs to provide life-saving assistance to people in distress. According to MSF, whose Geo Barents rescue vessel ceased operations in December 2024 due to the difficulties it faced, there has been a major decrease in the number of people its crew members rescued in the Mediterranean in 2024 (2,278 compared to 4,646 in the previous year). At the same time, they noticed an increase in the number of medical referrals, indicating that a considerably higher proportion of the people they had rescued had been in a critical condition and required urgent specialist care on land.  MSF called on the Italian authorities to cease hindering lifesaving operations at sea and imposing sanctions on NGO SAR vessels. It also urged the EU and its member states to immediately halt financial and material support to the Libyan Coast Guard, and to stop deliberately facilitating the forced return of people to Libya.

Despite the plea by MSF, Italian authorities have continued to detain NGO rescue vessels. On 16 June, the Sea-Eye NGO reported that its SEA-EYE 5 rescue vessel had been detained in the port of Pozzallo after rescuing 65 people. The organisation wrote in a press release that it was facing charges of not following instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome, delaying its request to disembark the rescued people, and not leaving the port promptly after disembarkation. Sea-Eye has rejected the charges, calling them “fabricated to criminalize rescue operations”. Two weeks earlier, on 5 June, the NADIR rescue vessel, which is operated by the NGO RESQSHIP, was detained in the port of Lampedusa after rescuing 112 people. According to RESQSHIP, it stands accused of failing to promptly inform the responsible authorities and not following orders regarding the assigned port of safety. RESQSHIP has denied the charges: “This detention is not about right or wrong, it’s about politics. The accusations are baseless, and the decision to hold NADIR is arbitrary. Civilian sea rescue is being deliberately obstructed to serve a political agenda”, said its spokesperson, Amelie Walther.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled in favour of Italy in a case concerning a 2017 shipwreck off the Libyan coast that led to 20 deaths. On 12 January, the court found that Italy could not be held responsible for the actions of the Libyan Coast Guard, which had intercepted a vessel carrying approximately 150 people and returned many of them to Libya where some reported being detained in inhumane conditions and abused. The ECtHR found that, although Italy was providing financial and material support to the Libyan Coast Guard, it did not exercise “effective control” over either the maritime area or the Libyan authorities, and was, therefore, not responsible for the incident or the subsequent mistreatment of the people involved.

An investigative report has highlighted the persistent cycle of abuse and hardship faced by unaccompanied minors in reception centres in Greece. According to the report by the News 24/7 news agency, while all of the children who had been detained in dire conditions in the so-called “Safe Zone” of the Samos Closed Control Access Centre had been removed by the end of May, the current location and living conditions of some of them was unknown. The agency also noted that most of them had been transferred to other closed facilities where they were continuing to experience similar confinement and deprivation of their basic needs. Commenting on the situation, Quitterie Pinton from the Human Rights Legal Project NGO said: “The truth is that, as long as these children are being re-detained, there is no legal basis for their detention”. “We are talking about illegal and arbitrary detention. It has reached such a point of violation of legality that it is now difficult to even formulate legal arguments. We do not have the tools to confront something so blatantly illegal,” she added. Deputy Minister of Migration and Asylum Sevi Voloudaki denied the allegations, telling News 24/7 that the evacuation of the Samos Safe Zone had been carried out “within the framework of the gradual decongestion and upgrading of infrastructure, ensuring the transfer of minors to appropriate accommodation structures, in full compliance with national and European guidelines”.

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